Sometimes it pays to look...

[David Wilson]

Another source of literature over the years was the specialist second-hand diving book retailer operating his business out of his own home and mailing catalogues to customers once or twice a year. One of owners of these "one-man businesses" was my fellow Brit David Way, who was also the author of a book on spearfishing. I enjoyed receiving his catalogues, which were illustrated with pen drawings and laid out thematically for easy perusal. He was an enthusiastic bibliophile who clearly shared my own enjoyment in building up a small library of diving books.

Now we are in the age of the Internet, online retailers of diving books have emerged, such as

CLASSIC DIVING BOOKS

I must admit I haven't availed myself of their services, so I can't make recommendations. It looks too as though Amazon may be a good source of classic diving titles, the more so as the company has many partnerships with used book stores.

I don't buy many diving titles these days, partly because as a retiree I have less money to spend and partly because I'm trying to keep down the amount of space-occupying possessions I have in my home. I've already heavily pruned the large library of foreign language teaching books and periodicals I owned when I taught secondary school French and German. I haven't reduced the number of diving books I have - probably around 200 or so titles - but I haven't made any new acquisitions either, so I don't own any titles published in the last two decades. Truth to tell, my bibliophile focus is exclusively on on the history and practice of diving between 1950 and 1980.

Sam mentions US and UK bibliophile meetings on two sides of the Atlantic in 1993. I wasn't aware of either event at the time. From the British perspective, the UK event may have been the heyday of UK diving historianship and there's little evidence of interest here in the British Isles outside the UK Historical Diving Society, which operates via its rather academic learned journal rather than running an online forum for vintage diving enthusiasts. A typical stance of the most prolific posters on the British Sub Aqua Club forum is that vintage diving gear is the preserve of the potential suicide. So, Dale, you may think Canada is a dead loss when it comes to people interested in diving history, but I can assure you that the UK is equally, if not more, depressing in this department with less excuse.

Dale mentions how important the content of old diving books is to him when improving his own diving practice. I can relate to that as I do more vintage snorkelling than I used to do, eight miles away from where I live, not like my fellow Brits in some tropical resort surrounded by fences to keep poverty-stricken locals out. This said, as a linguist, I also find the terminology of old diving books interesting. A day or two ago I opened my copy of the 1960 British Sub Aqua Club manual and found the phrase "snorkel and free diving". It was clear from the context that "free diving" meant what we now call "scuba diving". This helps to support my opinion that the French-derived (plongée libre) words "free diving", as used in the 1950s and 1960s, have little to do with the modern usage of the term "free diving" to mean, exclusively, breath-hold diving. I wonder when, and by whose coinage, this change occurred. Maybe my little library of diving books will provide me with the answer. All I know is that most modern "free divers" seem to know little, and care even less, about "free diving" meaning diving with air tanks back in the 1950s and 1960s.

 

[Sam Miller III]

I'm just small potatoes really. When Sam, David and some of the others get talking I just sit back and listen.

Sam makes an interesting point in that people collect books or materials for many different reasons. For my part I am most interested in the information they contain and would be more than likely to swap a book I have read for one that I have not. It may not be possible to talk to some of the pioneers of diving today but many of their thoughts and ideas are contained in their books.

There is a whole body of knowledge that would drift out of being if it were not for vintage equipment divers, historical societies and books.

Up here in Canada there is not much of a vintage community to draw from (I have only met one other diver with vintage gear and he was trying to sell me his collection) and aside from the common recreational agencies, the DIR community is the next up and coming thing. I admire their regime in many ways but preserving and practicing the pioneering practices of diving is not one of their strong suits. That being said even they can be a good source of info as a UTD instructor once answered a question of mine by providing some otherwise unknown local historical information.

I also find my style of diving mimics the early way of doing things too. I'm a blue collar guy with a family and (unless I win the lottery) know I will not be doing the high profile, exotic dives that are promoted as the "it" dives of today. I just can't compete in that financial arena. Instead I have found my niche by exploring out of the way local sites and by learning about and experimenting with the dive methods of the past. Books help a lot in that regard as there are no "vintage diving" courses. It's not the WKPP or the Britannic granted but it keeps me amused.

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Dale C

The amount of books in a library collection is unimportant. It is the content of the books and the fact that they are cherished and preserved for future generations is important. You are well on your way to developing a very presentable library.

Soon you will discover that you have far greater knowledge of the history of the sport than most of the fuzzy faced dive professionals and all that knowledge was obtained vicariously from books.

There are several Canadian books that are Keystone books that you as a Canadian should have in your collection;
1) The frogmen of Burma..
2) Anything by Dr Mc Innes...I recall and have three of his books.

PM me with your e mail and I will send you a summary of my library.

 

[DaleC]

PM sent Sam, thanks for the offer

I have two Dr McInnes books, The Breadelbane Adventure and Underwater Man both of which I quite enjoyed. I have not come across The frogmen of Burma yet.