Hard Hat Divers Wear Dresses
by
Bob Kirby
Deep
Sea
Divers
Wear
Dresses,
The
autobiography
of
Bob
Kirby.
The
names
of
Bob
Kirby
and
Bev
Morgan
can
be
found
above
and
below
every
ocean
on
the
planet.
Their
names
replaced
that
of
England’s
Siebe
Gorman
as
the
world
standard
in
surface
supplied
diving
equipment.
Although
the
world
uses
their
equipment,
and
each
man
is
considered
a
true
living
legend,
only
a
handful
of
divers
have
ever
met
either
Bob
Kirby
or
Bev
Morgan.
That
situation
is
not
likely
to
change
as
each
man
has
become
more
reserved
and
private
as
the
years
have
passed.
There
is
now
however,
a
chance
to
meet
Bob
Kirby
almost
face-to-face.
In
his
autobiography,
Hard
Hat
Divers
Wear
Dresses,
Kirby
shoots
his
story
straight
from
the
hip,
and
with
no
sentimental
prisoners
taken.
Kirby
tells
it
like
he
sees
it.
Imagine, if you will, that you are sitting in a water front bar, and a John Wayne sized guy pulls a stool up next to you and says “Hey amigo, let me buy you a beer and tell you some real diving stories about how it really was!” Well, that is exactly how this book reads. Like a one-on-one conversation with Kirby. It is a roller coaster of Kirby’s deep sea diving adventures, some good, some bad, some funny, some sad, through the last half of the 20th century. And Kirby has pretty much written like he would have told it, although he admits to having reluctantly eliminated much of “my beloved and frequent swearing.” Even with this minor vocabulary restriction, the book is definitely not one for your grandmother.
Starting out in the early 1950’s with his US Navy diving career and moving on to abalone diving, Kirby wheels out a cast of misfits who find a base in Southern California and eke a living off the sea bed. Bob Ratcliffe, Lad Handelman, Whitey Steffens, Jerry Todd, George Rebuck and Glen Bickford all surface in this early period as do Kirby’s equipment design talents. Kirby eventually migrates to work as a diver in Santa Barbara and describes the divers, companies and jobs of that period. Here there are adventures with white sharks, old and dangerous equipment and the young off-shore oil industry. Kirby joins Associated Divers and, with assistance from others, develops and builds his famous helium recirculator helmet. He also meets Bev Morgan, who in addition to his diving skills, has a background in fiberglass molding from his involvement in surfing. The two divers combine their skills and the Kirby Morgan company is born.
From the early 1960s Kirby’s talents with metal and Morgan’s with fiberglass produce an ever evolving line of cutting edge equipment that kept up with the demands of the military and commercial markets. With a good dose of humor Kirby recounts the joy, despair, love, hate and ongoing dramas of their partnership as their fortunes rise and fall. Crooked business partners, law suits, commercial diving, military contracts and Hollywood all add to Kirby’s colorful escapades through the world of professional diving. But it is the recollections of equipment design and manufacture, that really make this an important addition to any diver’s library. Kirby’s insights into why the USN chose the Mark XII, his work with Morgan, and how he came to build the helmets for Jim Cameron’s movie The Abyss, highlight the technical side of Kirby’s character. The book also contains numerous unique photos from Kirby’s career including some of his helmets.
