At Sea
Endeavour’s path continues north towards the Falkland Islands, and early tomorrow morning a vision of green will come into frame, as the outer islands show on the horizon.
It seems like just yesterday that we were admiring the ice on the Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia, enjoying the history of the whalers, sealers, and intrepid expeditioners that combed the White Continent and its sub-Antarctic islands. A lesser-known story of former times is that of the underwater explorers who went below the surface, in a time when SCUBA diving was in its infant stages, and surface support was at a minimum.
The first dive in Antarctica was made in 1902 by Willy Heinrich, a carpenter on Drygalski’s 1901-1903 expedition. Using a Siebe (you all remember the large brass diving helmets from long ago) diving helmet, supplied with air from the surface, Heinrich was able to dive under the ice and conduct ship repairs, such as caulking. Heinrich was the first Antarctic pioneer for open-water, under ice, and sub-Antarctic diving.
Aside from the accounts of Heinrich, open-water diving preceded diving under the ice, as there was still not a reliable way to access the water under the ice and stay safe while doing it. The first major documentation of open-water diving was “Operation High Jump,” the US Navy’s pioneering visit to Antarctica from 1946-1947. It was here where divers went down to conduct fuel pipeline inspections, and in one documentation, a submarine repair had also been made. During this time, SCUBA was still the cumbersome project of suiting up in the “space-man suit” and large brass helmet, supplied either by air from the surface or by a closed circuit re-breather system.
However, a breakthrough was made in 1961, where the first single open-circuit SCUBA dive was made in McMurdo Sound. The suits also moved from the clumsy space suits to dry suits, holding compressed air, and rubberized neck seals, which finally gave a little comfort to diving in such a harsh environment.
Today on Endeavour, we are diving with technological advances that would have made Willy Heinrich’s head spin – environmentally sealed regulators that will not freeze in the 28°F water, dry suits that offer as much mobility as wet suits, ways for the surface can talk to the divers to warn if something is wrong on the surface, ways for divers to talk to each other, and new comfortable and non-cumbersome harnesses for diver safety while diving under the ice. Seeing the advances that have been made in not only 100 years, but also the last 40,I have no doubt that in another 40 years, there will be technological advances that will make my head spin.
Endeavour’s path continues north towards the Falkland Islands, and early tomorrow morning a vision of green will come into frame, as the outer islands show on the horizon.
It seems like just yesterday that we were admiring the ice on the Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia, enjoying the history of the whalers, sealers, and intrepid expeditioners that combed the White Continent and its sub-Antarctic islands. A lesser-known story of former times is that of the underwater explorers who went below the surface, in a time when SCUBA diving was in its infant stages, and surface support was at a minimum.
The first dive in Antarctica was made in 1902 by Willy Heinrich, a carpenter on Drygalski’s 1901-1903 expedition. Using a Siebe (you all remember the large brass diving helmets from long ago) diving helmet, supplied with air from the surface, Heinrich was able to dive under the ice and conduct ship repairs, such as caulking. Heinrich was the first Antarctic pioneer for open-water, under ice, and sub-Antarctic diving.
Aside from the accounts of Heinrich, open-water diving preceded diving under the ice, as there was still not a reliable way to access the water under the ice and stay safe while doing it. The first major documentation of open-water diving was “Operation High Jump,” the US Navy’s pioneering visit to Antarctica from 1946-1947. It was here where divers went down to conduct fuel pipeline inspections, and in one documentation, a submarine repair had also been made. During this time, SCUBA was still the cumbersome project of suiting up in the “space-man suit” and large brass helmet, supplied either by air from the surface or by a closed circuit re-breather system.
However, a breakthrough was made in 1961, where the first single open-circuit SCUBA dive was made in McMurdo Sound. The suits also moved from the clumsy space suits to dry suits, holding compressed air, and rubberized neck seals, which finally gave a little comfort to diving in such a harsh environment.
Today on Endeavour, we are diving with technological advances that would have made Willy Heinrich’s head spin – environmentally sealed regulators that will not freeze in the 28°F water, dry suits that offer as much mobility as wet suits, ways for the surface can talk to the divers to warn if something is wrong on the surface, ways for divers to talk to each other, and new comfortable and non-cumbersome harnesses for diver safety while diving under the ice. Seeing the advances that have been made in not only 100 years, but also the last 40,I have no doubt that in another 40 years, there will be technological advances that will make my head spin.
