The great advantage of this unique postgraduate program, compared to others worldwide, is the practical training students receive in underwater archaeology. Students have the opportunity to obtain an internationally-recognized commercial diving qualification at very low cost. The dive center of the Maritime Archaeology Program is approved by the Danish Maritime Authority, and it can issue the Danish commercial scuba diver certificate.

Helicopters operating over water may experience emergencies, which require an immediate ditching. Ditching is a deliberately executed landing on water with the intent of abandoning the aircraft successfully. A helicopter that ditches onto a body of water is vulnerable to inversion and sinking due to its high center of gravity (engine, transmission and rotor) and its poor seakeeping performance [4]. The helicopters, operating over water, are equipped with Emergency Flotation System (EFS) and life rafts.

Dave Sutton, an experienced commercial diver, was manager of Lakeland Divers, a dive shop in New Jersey. He purchased a Mark V hardhat rig and started offering a series of recreational hardhat courses. These courses were to familiarize divers with the gear. There was no formal certification.



A number of Sutton’s students, including Fred Barthes, John Melnick and Jim Boyd, purchased the surface supply gear and formed the Northeast Diving Equipment Group (NEDEG). Barthes is the remaining co-founder of this very active group.

 

As soon as the submarine was in position, and the frogmen were out, the containers were opened and the SLC drawn out. The frogmen then tested all the functions of the SLC before setting out for the target. The first part of the trip took place on the surface, when only the heads of the frogmen were above the surface. The frogmen had full face masks on but breathed through a valve in the mouthpiece out to the air in order not to deplete the oxygen stores.

 

10th flottila

No more attempts were made with the SLC that year, and on the 15th March 1941 the 1st Light flotilla, to which the frogmen belonged, was reorganised and given the cover-name Decima Flottiglia MAS (10th Light Flotilla).

The idea of such a weapon arose in World War I, when experiments were carried out using different vessels to carry mines into the Austro-Hungarian naval base in Pola. The weapon was developed during the inter-war years

1915

While the war was raging on the battlefields of Europe, and submarines were terrorising the ships on the high seas, the Austro-Hungarian fleet and Italian fleet lay mostly well protected in their harbours, surrounded by mine-fields and anti-submarine nets. This passivity was, in the main, due to the ongoing submarine war.  

Part two of the story is found here:  First Frogmen - part 2

“Coming here is like getting your masters degree in diving,” said Coast Guard Lt. Alan Fitzgerald, a student enrolled in the Marine Engineering Dive Officer Course at the dive center. “The academics alone are pretty tough, because you get into all aspects of diving including physics and medicine. As far as physical fitness, they train you to be strong, so you can handle yourself under the surface.”

So says Dr Phil Nuytten, inventor of sub sea submersibles and the NewtSuit, a deep-sea hard suit employing break through technology that allow scientists to walk the bottom of the ocean in one-bar atmosphere with a freedom and range of movement unsurpassed by other devices.

Dr Phil

A native Canadian, born and raised in Vancouver, Phil was just 12-13 years old when he began diving. He opened the first diving shop in western Canada when he was 15, where he would work after school. There were so few divers back then, he said. But by the time he was 16, he was making more money than his teachers.