Continued from previous post
Taking the plunge
Before proceeding to document the next stage in the brothers’ lives, an acknowledgement of my indebtedness to Patrick Mouton, who has written extensively and authoritatively in French about Roger Pulvénis’s unique contribution to the development of underwater diving beneath the Mediterranean from the outset of the 1930s. I shall attempt to convey the gist of what Mouton penned in various journal articles and in a chapter entitled “Roger Pulvénis « invente » la chasse sous-marine” (Roger Pulvénis “invents” underwater hunting) in his book
Les héritiers de Neptune (
Neptune’s heirs).
It all began in summer 1930 off the Mediterranean island of
Port-Cros, where the Pulvénis family anchored their boat in a cove next to another vessel whose deck was strewn with a variety of tools for engine repairs. On a whim, Roger grabbed a pair of welder’s goggles, snapped them on and plunged overboard. At a depth of less than six metres, he watched fascinated as several
seabream performed what resembled a ritual dance around a huge rock. Back in Nice, intent on repeating the experience and equipped with identical goggles that squeezed his eye sockets, he dived underwater at a spot known as La Californie (“California”) along the Baie des Anges, where shoals of bass and mullet roamed about.
Turning his attention to catching one of these fish, Roger speculated whether he could launch a spear to transfix his quarry. He approached his physics-savvy neighbour, who told him that no underwater projectile would be effective because the aquatic medium was incompressible. Undeterred, Roger armed a spring-action
Eureka pistol with a metal-tipped wooden dart, which promptly floated to the surface after the trigger was pulled. Then he fitted a modified bicycle pump with a steel spear and a spring so strong that the front of the contraption ripped away when it was released. Perseverance paid off eventually, however, when he skewered a ten-centimetre
mullet with a spear after reinforcing another pump to deliver the missile. Such was the birth of underwater hunting.
One of the very first underwater guns in the hand of its inventor
Dedicated to the task in hand, Roger spent the following months designing and manufacturing a spring-action gun made from a long copper tube, without a handgrip but fitted with a clever trigger mechanism. A stainless-steel coil spring propelled the 90-cm spear, which was secured with a 15-metre cord wound around a reel attached to the rear of the weapon. He built three more identical guns for his brothers. During the summer, the four young men sailed to the
Lérins islands,
Saint-Raphaël and Port-Cros, where extensive virgin underwater hunting grounds awaited them. In the evening, they anchored their boat in a creek, camped on a beach and lit a wood fire to cook the fish they had caught.
Back then, the Pulvénis brothers hunted with minimal equipment. In addition to the gun and the goggles, they used a curved length of garden hose to breathe, attaching it to the goggles with string. A sheathed knife hung from their swimsuit waistbands to cut the spear cord when necessary or to dispatch a wounded quarry. Strong
espadrilles completed the outfit, enabling them to go ashore and store each catch within the rocks. Although they had heard about the first modern swim fins invented by
Louis de Corlieu, this technical advance had no immediate appeal to them. According to the very first underwater hunting book in the French-speaking world, written by one of the brothers at Roger’s behest, such foot appendages were cumbersome and limited in use.
As time went by, masks eventually replaced goggles. One day Roger came across a newspaper illustration of Japanese
“Ama” pearl-diving women wearing what resembled bamboo and glass portholes over their faces. Inspired by what he saw, he constructed his first mask out of copper, fitting rubber beading around the rim for a leaktight seal. He topped the device with a pair of rubber enema bulbs, which were supposed to squeeze air into the mask interior when deep-water pressure threatened to crush the face.
An anatomical mouthpiece designed to eliminate jaw cramps was fitted later to the demand end of the garden hose supplying the brothers with air from above the surface when they were face downwards in the water with their mouth and nose submerged. One outstanding issue was the naming of this breathing tube, which the Pulvénises discussed during the intermission at a cinema showing a western starring
Gary Cooper. One of the brothers randomly suggested calling the device a “tuba”, perhaps in tribute to Gary Cooper’s Best Actor Academy Award nominated performance as tuba-playing Longfellow Deeds in the 1936 movie
Mr Deeds goes to town. Whatever its origin,
“tuba” is now
the word for “snorkel” in every corner of the French-speaking world.
Mask with compensator bulbs, “tuba” (snorkel) with mouthpiece, front view
Mask with compensator bulbs, “tuba” (snorkel) with mouthpiece, side view
As for underwater hunting tactics during this golden age, the fish seemed to lack the sense of mortal danger they display nowadays. Roger’s brother wrote, “After moving a few metres away in terror, (the fish) often seems to forget its pursuer, reverting to normal behaviour or even stopping and quietly seizing some prey.” Very soon, however, each species learned how to react when facing danger and the four hunters developed new tactics based on what they observed. One evening, when he was chasing a mullet that was clearly less timid than the ones he had previously encountered, Roger lost his temper, striking the surface of the water with the flat of his hand, whereupon the fish rushed over and became easy to catch. The technique of making a noise at the surface to “enrage” the fish would prove repeatedly successful, remaining in use to this very day. What with the plentiful catches of seabream,
bass and
groupers, each fish hunting expedition yielded spectacular results. Furthermore, whenever the brothers were spotted leaving the water with their fish, they found themselves instantly surrounded by a curious crowd.
Back in 1930, Roger Pulvénis must have cut a very solitary figure when he donned some welder’s goggles before plunging into the Mediterranean to marvel at the creatures beneath the waves. By the late 1930s, however, he and his brothers were no longer alone whenever they stalked the denizens of the deep. In the intervening years, the city of Nice had witnessed not only a steady growth in the visiting and resident underwater hunting community but also the gradual emergence of local inventors, notably Alec Kramarenko and Maxime Forjot, who like Roger were skilled underwater hunters as well as significant contributors to spearfishing gear development.
Continued in the next post
