Showing posts with label Challenger Deep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Challenger Deep. Show all posts

2019-08-26

"In Oceans Deep: Courage, Innovation, and Adventure Beneath the Waves" by Bill Streever



Publisher:New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2019.
Edition:First edition.
ISBN: 9780316551311
Characteristics: xi, 303 pages :,illustrations

I found this book "In Oceans Deep "to be a very interesting read. The author Bill Streever is a former commercial diver, who worked in the Gulf of Mexico amongst other places. When he left commercial diving he took up research biology and now lives with his wife aboard a sailboat (not a bad life).

These experiences have given him knowledge of most if not all the aspects of diving, and humanity's history underwater. In fact, I feel other authors who don't have these skills and experiences, would be hard pressed to write a book such as this.

The whole book is extensively researched, with the first chapter dealing with the accomplishments of the Trieste when it to descended it into the Challenger Deep back in January 1960. The author then examines the sport of free diving (diving to depth on the single breath of air). The author managed to reach a depth of 132 feet after only four weeks of training.

The next topic was developments in technology to allow divers to stay at depth using various diving suits diving Bell's etc. in this section he also gives an overview of decompression science and how it was developed / discovered when they were utilizing caissons for building bridges.

Next comes saturation diving, which means divers stay under pressure for an extended periods of time, breathing exotic gas mixtures to allowing them to work or do research at depth.  This section included discussion of projects such as the U.S. Navy's Sealab I, II, & III.

Other topics that are dealt with in this book are: 1 atmosphere diving in which the diver remains at 1 atmosphere throughout the by using devices such as the Newtsuit, submersibles, etc. The next topic was remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) how they are used, and some of the accomplishments that have been achieved through their use.

The final chapter talks about some of the interviews the author did when writing this book, the ongoing work to preserve the oceans by these advocates, and the difficulties they are having.

This book was extremely interesting to read, and even though I haven't been diving for many years it makes me want to get back into the sport. Mind you the fact that I live in a landlocked part of the country makes this rather difficult, as there isn't much to see in freshwater lakes.

Going on Hiatus

 Greetings, I have decided to put a hold on doing further book reviews for a while. In fact I'm not sure if I will resume doing reviews ...