The History of Oilfield Diving - An Industrial Adventure
Until the end of World War II and the birth of offshore oil diving, the world’s professional diving community was indeed a small one. In America, fewer than 100 commercial divers were employed in the fields of underwater construction, salvage, and maintenance of engineered structures on a full-time basis. In the field of fishery diving, about 200 sponge divers worked out of the Greek sponge diving community of Tarpon Springs, in the Gulf of Mexico. An even smaller group of open-sea fishery divers harvested abalone, agar-rich seaweeds, corals, and sea shells from U.S. waters. Even when combined, these prewar commercial diving and fishery trades employed only about 400 divers. Other maritime nations had similarly low diver populations.
Within a decade after the war — and quite dramatically — an incredible increase in the number of professional divers occurred with the beginning of offshore oil exploration and production. The emergence of oilfield diving created the biggest expansion in diving since the first practical compressed air diving by Charles Deane in 1828. It began with a handful of divers working for oil companies and their drilling contractors in the Gulf of Mexico and California waters. As the large international oil companies extended their offshore operations overseas the ever-widening need for oil divers continued to evolve, further enlarging this new and fledgling diving industry. Coincidentally, recreational SCUBA divers started to appear on the scene. Within a few decades the number of divers in the United States, counting those diving for sport, increased from about 400 to several hundred thousand! Comparable spectacular increases soon began to occur worldwide.
I
believe
The
History
of
Oilfield
Diving
is
the
most
comprehensive
and
complete
story
to
detail
oilfield
diving
history,
and
its
explosive
growth,
ever
written.
It
is
a
monumental
work,
and
without
any
doubt
will
become
the
primary
reference
source
for
those
reviewing
oil
diving
pioneers,
advancements
in
deep
diving
technology,
development
of
sub-sea
drilling
methods,
and
the
founding
of
large
international
diving
companies.
Its
scope
and
magnitude
are
unprecedented.
The
History
of
Oilfield
Diving
printed
text
alone
runs
774
pages
not
counting
appendix,
glossary,
conversion
table,
sources,
acknowledgments,
and
index.
I
don’t
know
of
anything
comparable
to
it.
Nineteen years were spent by the author Christopher Swann in researching and writing the book. Yes, that’s right, 19 years between start and finish! In the book’s preface Swann writes . . . “had I known what I was letting myself in for I would not have started. My original list of interview candidates ran to about 25 names, the final total was 107.” Thankfully, Swann persevered to finish his project.
The
book’s
contents
are
divided
into
64
chapters.
Each
chapter
is
like
a
book
in
itself,
filled
with
a
kaleidoscope
of
characters
and
events
—
all
much
too
numerous
and
ever-changing
to
relate
in
a
two-page
book
review.
Briefly,
however,
the
early
chapters
of
the
book
deal
with
the
history
of
ocean
oil
operations
off
southern
California’s
shoreline,
and
the
Gulf
of
Mexico.
Included
is
historical
information
concerning
California’s
earliest
divers
to
work
on
oil
platforms,
followed
by
the
stories
of
the
first
diver’s
to
do
oil
work
in
the
Gulf
of
Mexico,
many
establishing
successful
diving
companies
in
the
process.
Later
chapters
covering
post
World
War
II
oil
operations
detail
the
development
rotary
drilling
technology
from
floating
vessels
off
California
waters,
and
the
diver’s
who
pushed
past
the
limits
of
deep
air
diving
to
make
that
work
possible.
Exciting
first-hand
accounts
by
the
people
who
pioneered
helium
gas
mixtures,
their
research
and
development
work
(sometimes
while
on
the
job!)
to
revise
existing
decompression
tables
for
commercial
operations,
and
their
often
terrifying
bouts
with
oxygen
poisoning
and
bends
is
reminiscent
of
the
Lindberg’s
and
Armstrong’s
who
pioneered
air
and
space.
With
the
early
oil
diving
era
being
extremely
accident
prone,
many
divers
tell
their
stories
of
close
calls,
and
fatal
accidents.
More
stories
of
diving
in
Lybia,
the
North
Sea,
and
Alaska,
and
in
the
words
of
the
original
founders,
the
formation
of
General
Offshore
Divers,
Divcon,
Ocean
Systems
and
Cal
Dive.
Starting
about
midway
in
the
book
is
information
on
the
development
of
Saturation
diving,
Taylor
Diving
&
Salvage
bell
diving
in
the
North
Sea,
and
their
hyperbaric
welding
operations.
There
is
a
very
interesting
interview
with
the
founder
of
Comex,
who
talks
about
its
early
beginning.
Other
chapters
on
Australian
oil
diving
operations,
International
Divers,
construction
of
an
oil
platform
in
1000-feet
of
water,
and
the
spectacular
operations
of
Sub
Sea
International
during
the
construction
of
the
BP
Forties
oil
platforms.
Many
other
historic
events
follow
in
later
chapters,
including
the
birth
of
ADCI,
oil
work
in
South-East
Asia,
atmospheric
diving
suits,
maned
submersibles,
and
the
ROVs
development,
and
role
in
deep
water
oil
drilling.
The book is truly encyclopedic of oil diving history in all its aspects. There are two indexes. A general index, and a people index. Combined, the two indexes total 35 pages. You will find them invaluable when information searching various events and people.
The above is only a brief synopsis of The History of Oilfield Diving contents. It is not the type of book that you put by your bedside and finish in a few nights. Rather, it is a book that will find a special place in your diving library — a book that you will take from your bookshelf from time to time to reread a chapter or two for many years to come.
850 pages. B&W photos with 8-page color section. Nine maps. Bibliographical references. Appendixes. Hardcover: 7 x 10 inches, with dust jacket. Fully indexed. $80 plus $11 domestic USPS Priority Mail shipping. Total cost $91. California residents must add $6.20 sales tax making a total cost of $ 97.20. For non domestic shipping rates please reply to this email and you will be contacted with the shipping costs to your country.
The following quotes from Society Advisory Board members:
"Anyone who works - or has ever worked - in the offshore petroleum industry should buy this book. This is history how it happened, not as people think it happened." - Bev Morgan
"A magnificent piece of work... I have never read anything so precise. I am amazed by the incredible amount of historical detail that is absolutely essential to the reader to understand fifty years of diving history." - Henri Delauze
"A splendid account of the explosive development of the oilfield diving industry. By talking to those who know what happened, Swann has preserved the true story for posterity." - Andre Galerne