Deep Dark and Dangerous: On the Bottom with the Northwest Salvage Divers – Rebecca Harrison
Harrison tells the stories of the pioneers of the salvage diving profession, those men and women who worked – some over 100 years ago – in the cold, murky depths of the Pacific Ocean off Oregon, Washington state and Alaska in the USA. Their courage and the difficulty of the conditions they worked in is palpable. Many of these divers learned the trade from their fathers and uncles. Their work encompassed salvage of cargoes, demolition, search and recovery, and construction of harbours, bridges and other structures… All underwater.
This is definitely a history book – there’s nothing about the current state of the salvage diving industry. The stories are personal and clearly many of them are sourced from living relatives of the divers, and some from the surviving divers themselves. It’s well illustrated with photos of the divers, their gear, and their team members.
The author’s website for the book is here.
If you have an interest in commercial diving, or in the history of diving, this is a good place to start. For more on what being a commercial diver entails today, check out Bottom Time. You can get the book here if you’re in South Africa, otherwise go here. If you want to read it on your Kindle, go here.
