Dr Pavel Borovikov
The history of diving in Russia was long hidden by the blanket of
Cold War politics, thankfully now history. Dr Pavel Borovikov, a
senior figure in the Russian underwater industry, has researched
and written extensively on his country's diving history and the
Society is very pleased to have secured his services as a speaker
this year.
Don Hales
Co-incidently, a major crisis of the Cold War was the mysterious
affair of Commander "Buster Crabb", lost whilst spying
on the Russian cruiser Ordzhonikidze in Portsmouth, which had brought
Bulganin and Kruschev to England on a goodwill visit in 1956. Journalist
Don Hales has recently interviewed the key figures and made use
of recently released papers for his new book, and will bring us
up to date on the affair with his talk.
Christopher Swann
Commercial oilfield diving began in the early years of the C20th
on America, but it was not until after WWII that it really took
off, as land wells on the coast ran dry and rigs moved offshore.
The pioneer divers had to develop their methods and equipment from
scratch. How they did so and created modern oilfield diving industry
has been brilliantly researched and told by Christopher Swann, the
third of our speakers.
Sven Jorgensen
For our fourth speaker we have turned to Denmark, which like the
UK has a long coastline in relationship to its land area and hence
a long history of diving. Sven Jorgensen of HDS Denmark probably
knows more about its history than anyone else and will introduce
us to stone fishing and 2-bolt helmets amonths other subjects.
Copies of Christopher Swann's History of Oilfield
Diving, Don Hales' The Final Dive and also Dr Borovikov's new book
on Russian diving history (dual Russian/English text) will be available
for sale at the conference. |
