Career in salvage diving

[mardan22]

Hey all,

I've been looking at switching my career from oil and gas to possibly commercial diving. The only problem is, most commercial dive jobs I've been able to find are for oil and gas, pipe fitting or offshore work on platforms. Therefore jobs are hard to come by, especially for a fresh hand out of school. I'm really just interested in travelling for work and recovering that which needs to be recovered.

So basically my questions are:

1. Is there much demand, if at all, for any kind of career in salvage diving?
2. What kind of travel is there involved?
3. What training or school would be best for a focus on salvage?
4. Is this a realistic career goal?

That's all I can think of for now, as I think of anything else I will post it up.

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[Kevrumbo]

SPACECRAFT RECOVERY TECHNICIAN

The SpaceX Mission Operations team is actively engaged in Falcon 9 and Dragon operations year-round, including helping to launch satellites and Dragon spacecraft, and flying Dragons to the International Space Station. One of our areas of responsibility is Recovery.

The Recovery team is responsible for doing exactly what it sounds like, recovering flown hardware and eventually, astronauts! This scope of the team includes design, development, testing, planning and execution of recovery missions for both our Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 launch vehicle. We are looking for scrappy, organized, outside-the-box thinkers that are not afraid to go on an adventure or get their hands dirty.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Prep, maintain, modify, and refurbish hardware for recovery missions at sea.
• Support Dragon and Falcon recovery missions. This includes contracting vendors, creating cost estimates, managing a team, and leading recovery operations in the field.
• Improve upon current Dragon and Falcon recovery methods. You will need to find ways to make it cheaper, faster, safer, more efficient, and more reliable.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum 5 years of experience as a mechanic or technician
• Experience with testing and troubleshooting fluid and electrical systems (high or low voltage)
• Hands-on experience building, maintaining, and modifying equipment

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Experience working with hypergolic propellants or hazardous materials
• Experience working with launch vehicles
• Prior experience scuba diving or working offshore
• Self-motivated
• Strong organizational skills
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Creative and innovative

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be willing to travel
• Must be willing to work overtime and weekends as needed

Recovery Operations Technician | SpaceX

 

[Searcaigh]

I worked for a salvage company 30 years ago, we had our own DSV and the work primarily involved recovering tin ore from WWI wrecks off the south coast of Ireland.

I was also involved in a couple of other projects recovering some aircraft parts from a WWII wreck as well as a cable laying machine owned by British Telecom.

Best starting point is to find out what salvage companies employ divers, the company I worked for no longer exists (Sea Salv Marine).

 

[mardan22]

Thanks for the input Seacaigh. I have been looking around for a couple companies. I've found a few, mostly out of florida which wouldn't suck haha. Most are requiring a few years experience which is why I'm trying to see if it's worth switching careers at this point. Did you do much offshore work first? Or just get lucky so to speak? I haven't found any yet, but have you heard of any places that do on the job type training?

 

[Searcaigh]

I was lucky (maybe) straight out of training to that job. I was trying to get a job with Comex, as I had a few friends there, but this was mid 80s and oil was down to $10/barrel.

Long story short worked for the salvage company for two years then headed to the Middle East.

 

[dirkadirk]

A friend of mine went commercial diver (UK, not sure what terms the rest of the world use) a few years ago. Over here that basically means he can be employed to perform underwater tasks. After his basic certification, he then did speciality training such as underwater welding, pipe/structure maintenance, salvage, training etc that would then broaden his employment opportunities. He has mostly stayed within the UK for most of his work, but I would assume that the extra skill training would be required/desired for various different roles across the world too.

Don't know if my 2p's worth helps at all

 

[Heliumthief]

There are literally hundreds of Salvage companies worldwide, but many of them don't hire divers directly, rather subcontract a suitable diving company on a job by job basis. most guys I know who do/have done salvage have a lot of general construction skills that are needed-diesel fitter, hydraulics, topside fabricator, boatman etc. but I've never heard of a 'salvage' course. If they employ divers, they usually have to be very good at all this. But to be honest, the industry covers everything from recovering speedboats from a harbour in the US, refloating a ferry in Ukraine or burning apart a freighter on a beach in Namibia, so there's no 'job description' as such, rarely do you get 'great' pay, although occasionally you get to travel to interesting places, the job is usually hard, stressful, long hours, and considerably more dangerous than many other Diving jobs, and unless you're well known to a company, then you have to wait by the phone, praying for a typhoon...

big worldwide companies to look for are Smit salvage, Mammoet both Dutch based (Dutch are big in salvage) Titan (I think owned by Crowley in the US now) Micoperi....to be honest, just google salvage companies, and discard the ones that don't have a list of work done...there are many 'salvage companies' that are just an office, waiting on the off chance of a contract when they just sub out to another company...

 

[Robert Thompson]

If you're wanting to be a salvage diver you need to get into the working dive world. You need to get some time as a working diver to be very proficient and comfortable in the water. Your water skills and situational awareness need to perfect. A salvage situation can go south in a split second. You have 50000 lbs of lift and a bag lets loose, it could kill you quick. Not to mention surge, current, low vis, and on and on. I'm not saying don't do it, just be willing to put the time in.