Oral History Gallery

Extract Text (Duration01.35)

Q:... What was the most memorable dive that you did?

Hmm, well the one that I can remember easily, as clear as anything, is when I found the bell. Yeah I can remember it exactly what happened yeah. Well it was upside down and it was out of context, I was diving in the stern castle excavating all the rigging, cause the rigging had fell in so you had running rigging and the standing rigging, like the rattling so what the sailors used to run up, you know, and all them knots and things were there and all the pulley blocks and it was really good. I was really enjoying myself and then I found this, hmm, what seemed to be a wooden bowl, there were loads of wooden bowls there but it, anyway I looked at it and then I realised that it was an upside down bell [laughs]. And this was brilliant because we were on comms, we had all the, you know, all the professional gear on and I was saying, of course, John Adams was supervising, and I said, "John I've just found a bell." And he went, "Yeah, yeah, yeah," and I said, "No I have." And he went, "Oh right what's it got on it?" And I said, "Well it's got as far as I can see, it's got Ik Benz something." He went, "You are", he said, "Really.." He said, "Wait there I'm coming in". But he couldn't, all the long umbilicals were out, cause we were diving on umbilicals and he couldn't get to me so he had to let me bring it up. But yeah, it was quite something.