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Stars Beneath the Sea: The Pioneers of Diving
A series of detailed portraits, this history of the art of diving recounts the eccentric exploits and sense-defying feats of the men who turned underwater adventure into modern science.
- GenresNonfictionHistoryScience
282 pages, Hardcover
First published August 5, 1999
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291 people want to read
About the author
Trevor Norton
10 books5 followersTrevor Norton was an Emeritus Professor at the University of Liverpool, having retired from the Chair of Marine Biology. He has published widely on ecological topics. He was also an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Manx Studies on the Isle of Man where he lived.
(1940 - February 2021)
(1940 - February 2021)
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 3, 2020
This is another captivating book by Trevor Norton: full of interesting facts and tremendously hilarious.
It comprises the mini-biographies of some of the pioneers in diving and marine biology, their achievements and inventions, as well as a series of amusing experiences. They experimented on themselves and too often came close to death, or lead them to it later in their lives. Due to their courage and dedication uncountable lives were saved ever since.
Here they are: John Guy Gilpatric, Henri Milne Edwards, Roy Miner, William Beebe, Jack Kitching, John Scott Haldane and son, J.B.S. Haldane, Cameron Wright, Louis Boutan, Ernest Williamson, Hans Hass, Frédéric Dumas and Peter Throckmorton.
I won’t make a synopsis or a proper review; I’ll just say that I had a great time reading it and here are some of the most interesting and funny quotes:
“But Aristotle has presumably seen a practical snorkel when he wrote: ‘Just as divers are sometimes provided with instruments through which they can draw air from above the water, and thus remain for a long time under the sea, so also have elephants been furnished by nature with their lengthened nostril, and whenever they have to pass through water they lift the nostril above the surface.’”
“No less a figure than Edmund Halley, when not gazing at comets, designed a wooden bell large enough to carry several men to the sea floor. His innovation was to extend the divers’ endurance by sending down barrels of air to replenish the supply. He also furnished a watertight hood and hose so that they could work outside the bell.”
“They trained hard to be at peak fitness. Gilpatric had a particularly rigorous regime: ‘I had always lived the outdoor life when I wasn’t in the house, never drinking anything stronger than whisky except vodka and rarely smoking more than one cigarette at a time.’”
“[…] his [Milne Edwards’] work was known to Jules Verne. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Professor Aronnax, the captive passenger on the submarine Nautilus, was Professor of Natural History at the Paris Museum and clearly based on Milne Edwards. He even refers to ‘Milne Edwards, my worthy master’. That is closer to immortality than most scientists achieve.”
“He [John Haldane] was able to calculate a system of staged decompression in which the diver came up rapidly to the depth at which the pressure was halved, then rose in stages designed to ensure that the pressure of nitrogen in the body never became more than about twice that of the air breathed.[…] No development in history of diving has saved so many lives.”
“His [J.B.S. Haldane’s] task was to organize a bombing school. ‘I began by lecturing on the anatomy of hand grenades and made each pupil attach a detonator to a fuse with his teeth.’ He explained that ‘should the detonator explode…the mouth would be considerably enlarged. Pupils who did not show alacrity when confronted with this…were returned to duty as unlikely to become efficient instructors.’”
“Aldous Huxley was fascinated by [J.B.S.] Haldane’s ideas and used them as the basis for Brave New World.”
“The story of [Frédéric] Dumas is the history of free-diving. He was there at the very beginning. In 1949 Dumas and his collaborators published the first handbook of aqualung diving. Cousteau was third author, a mistake he would never make again. Four years later the most famous book on diving ever penned was largely based on Dumas’ diaries, but it soon came to be regarded as Cousteau’s The Silent World.”
And a once-in-a-lifetime experience :))
It comprises the mini-biographies of some of the pioneers in diving and marine biology, their achievements and inventions, as well as a series of amusing experiences. They experimented on themselves and too often came close to death, or lead them to it later in their lives. Due to their courage and dedication uncountable lives were saved ever since.
Here they are: John Guy Gilpatric, Henri Milne Edwards, Roy Miner, William Beebe, Jack Kitching, John Scott Haldane and son, J.B.S. Haldane, Cameron Wright, Louis Boutan, Ernest Williamson, Hans Hass, Frédéric Dumas and Peter Throckmorton.
I won’t make a synopsis or a proper review; I’ll just say that I had a great time reading it and here are some of the most interesting and funny quotes:
“But Aristotle has presumably seen a practical snorkel when he wrote: ‘Just as divers are sometimes provided with instruments through which they can draw air from above the water, and thus remain for a long time under the sea, so also have elephants been furnished by nature with their lengthened nostril, and whenever they have to pass through water they lift the nostril above the surface.’”
“No less a figure than Edmund Halley, when not gazing at comets, designed a wooden bell large enough to carry several men to the sea floor. His innovation was to extend the divers’ endurance by sending down barrels of air to replenish the supply. He also furnished a watertight hood and hose so that they could work outside the bell.”
“They trained hard to be at peak fitness. Gilpatric had a particularly rigorous regime: ‘I had always lived the outdoor life when I wasn’t in the house, never drinking anything stronger than whisky except vodka and rarely smoking more than one cigarette at a time.’”
“[…] his [Milne Edwards’] work was known to Jules Verne. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Professor Aronnax, the captive passenger on the submarine Nautilus, was Professor of Natural History at the Paris Museum and clearly based on Milne Edwards. He even refers to ‘Milne Edwards, my worthy master’. That is closer to immortality than most scientists achieve.”
“He [John Haldane] was able to calculate a system of staged decompression in which the diver came up rapidly to the depth at which the pressure was halved, then rose in stages designed to ensure that the pressure of nitrogen in the body never became more than about twice that of the air breathed.[…] No development in history of diving has saved so many lives.”
“His [J.B.S. Haldane’s] task was to organize a bombing school. ‘I began by lecturing on the anatomy of hand grenades and made each pupil attach a detonator to a fuse with his teeth.’ He explained that ‘should the detonator explode…the mouth would be considerably enlarged. Pupils who did not show alacrity when confronted with this…were returned to duty as unlikely to become efficient instructors.’”
“Aldous Huxley was fascinated by [J.B.S.] Haldane’s ideas and used them as the basis for Brave New World.”
“The story of [Frédéric] Dumas is the history of free-diving. He was there at the very beginning. In 1949 Dumas and his collaborators published the first handbook of aqualung diving. Cousteau was third author, a mistake he would never make again. Four years later the most famous book on diving ever penned was largely based on Dumas’ diaries, but it soon came to be regarded as Cousteau’s The Silent World.”
And a once-in-a-lifetime experience :))
December 8, 2011
This book wasn't quite what I expected. The history of diving centres around a collection of scientists, naturalists, photographers and archaeologists. Norton writes a short biography on each individual contributor. While amusing at times and well written, much of the book is spent covering biographical information unrelated to diving. The chapters on Ernest Williamson and Peter Thockmorton are perhaps the most interesting and may prompt me to read further.
July 10, 2019
A fascinating anthology of diving related stories, from the dangerous and rudimentary beginnings, through to the birth of modern SCUBA via tales of how the early pioneers of dive tables used themselves as guinea pigs in discovering the effects of pressure on both gasses and physiology ... their trials and tribulations all adding up to the relative safety we enjoy today as recreational divers ... a must for anyone who loves the sea and what lies beneath it, but equally enjoyable for those that like tales of daring, foolhardiness and the occasional misadventure ...
April 4, 2024
Ze začátku mě to tak nechytlo, ale jakmile jsem se do toho "ponořil" hlouběji, bylo to čím dál zajímavější a u některých biografií mi rozum zůstával stát. My lidé jsme poháněni zvědavostí a neustále mě bude překvapovat, co jsme ochotni udělat pro to, abychom naplnili tu naši zvědavost.
April 19, 2024
Great writing style about pioneers of diving
August 27, 2009
Well-written anecdotes about "the pioneers of diving" as the book cover says. I didn't get a very good sense of the overall history of diving from this book -- i.e. what were other people (and companies and research labs) doing besides the fellows whose biographies are given here -- but it's definitely a pleasure to read Norton's dry wit.
Some favorite quotes:
p.11: "They trained hard to be at peak fitness. Gilpatric had a particularly rigorous regime: 'I had always lived the outdoor life when I wasn't in the house, never drinking anything stronger than whisky except vodka and rarely smoking more than one cigarette at a time.'"
p. 209: "Whilst negotiating the hiring fee with the owner, they accidentally served developing fluid instead of lemonade. 'An Austrian national drink,' said Hass, trying to save face. Everybody drained their glass, but nobody asked for a refill."
Also I want to remember to look up JBS Haldane's papers on the mathematics of air-raid protection from WWII; they sound potentially interesting for a statistician to read...
Some favorite quotes:
p.11: "They trained hard to be at peak fitness. Gilpatric had a particularly rigorous regime: 'I had always lived the outdoor life when I wasn't in the house, never drinking anything stronger than whisky except vodka and rarely smoking more than one cigarette at a time.'"
p. 209: "Whilst negotiating the hiring fee with the owner, they accidentally served developing fluid instead of lemonade. 'An Austrian national drink,' said Hass, trying to save face. Everybody drained their glass, but nobody asked for a refill."
Also I want to remember to look up JBS Haldane's papers on the mathematics of air-raid protection from WWII; they sound potentially interesting for a statistician to read...
May 16, 2016
A well written book containing biographies of people who committed themselves to the exploration and indeed exploitation of the world under the seas when it would have been considered on a par with flying to the moon.
These people were odd, eccentric, geniuses and fools, who together contributed to the knowledge of the sea and all that live in it, and invented and experimented with the means to enable man to exist for periods underwater. Sadly they also contributed to the total destruction of the environment that they were besotted with and destroyed priceless ruins that had lain untouched for thousands of years.
It's very easy to read and is as fast-paced in parts as the cover blurb claims, however, I for one was a little disappointed toward the end because the players being portrayed were not really the explorer / inventors / pioneers of the same caliber as the earlier vignettes, and although it's not stated anywhere, I kept expecting it to end with Jacques Cousteau, and the fact that it didn't just left me dissatisfied.
These people were odd, eccentric, geniuses and fools, who together contributed to the knowledge of the sea and all that live in it, and invented and experimented with the means to enable man to exist for periods underwater. Sadly they also contributed to the total destruction of the environment that they were besotted with and destroyed priceless ruins that had lain untouched for thousands of years.
It's very easy to read and is as fast-paced in parts as the cover blurb claims, however, I for one was a little disappointed toward the end because the players being portrayed were not really the explorer / inventors / pioneers of the same caliber as the earlier vignettes, and although it's not stated anywhere, I kept expecting it to end with Jacques Cousteau, and the fact that it didn't just left me dissatisfied.
May 21, 2012
This is more of a series of short biographies of the men who, in one fashion or another, had a pioneering hand in deep sea diving. So, you're not really going to get a historical overview of diving apart from a brief summary, but you will get some fascinating information about each individual (19th-20th century). As each chapter ends, the author then provides a connection to the next diver.
This book caught me by surprise, as I was expecting the selected individuals to have been all divers, but some are notable for other areas, such as science and filming. As a reader who has zero experience in diving or scuba or barely putting my head beneath the water, I found the book easy to take and quite informational. However, it's not until Norton gets to the last subject, Peter Throckmorton, that I could taste the sea salt on my lips. All in all, a very linear approach to the subject.
Book Season = Summer (while yachting in the Aegean)
This book caught me by surprise, as I was expecting the selected individuals to have been all divers, but some are notable for other areas, such as science and filming. As a reader who has zero experience in diving or scuba or barely putting my head beneath the water, I found the book easy to take and quite informational. However, it's not until Norton gets to the last subject, Peter Throckmorton, that I could taste the sea salt on my lips. All in all, a very linear approach to the subject.
Book Season = Summer (while yachting in the Aegean)
Read
July 29, 2011This is a fascinating and jocular look at the men and women who pioneered the science and technology of deep sea diving. There are some absolutely incredible tales here of scientists and enthusiasts alike who pushed the boundaries of their own endurance to further humankind's ability to breath underwater and explore the sea. I found the chapters about Haldane Sr. and Jr. to be especially jaw-dropping regarding the danger these men put themselves in for the advancement of science.
July 1, 2015
An interesting book, that tells the story of diving, using a series of biographies of the pioneers in the field. It is amazing how destructive these early divers were to the environment they wanted to view. The use of TNT as a method of collecting as many specimens of fish in as short a time as possible. And yet, once they started to realize their mistakes, they quickly changed their methods. And yet we still so little about the icean.
April 12, 2012
This is one of the most captivating books that I have read. Very, very interesting.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews