Promoting and Preserving Our Diving Heritage
Welcome to the
Historical Diving Society
Our members come from a wide range of backgrounds with a shared passion for exploring, preserving and recording our diving heritage. Our members are encouraged to meet and exchange information through our various functions and activities. Our specialist interest groups include film and book groups and we have an active ‘Working Equipment Group’ which maintains and demonstrates vintage diving equipment. We maintain close relations with our international Societies and enjoy regular exchange visits. The Society publishes a journal, magazine, facsimiles and newsletters and has an extensive reference library. We also have the only museum in the UK which is dedicated solely to diving.
The world’s first Historical Diving Society
Visits to historical diving sites in the UK and abroad
Museum and reference library
Working equipment displays
Annual conference
Artefact and data source for TV and film industry
Friendly, active special interest groups
Genealogical data base of helmet divers
Events
Join Us
Annual Conference
10.00am on Saturday 19th November 2022.
Our conference will be held at Subsea7 in Sutton on Saturday 19th November.
Full details can be found here
Annual General Meeting
10.00am on Sunday 27 November 2022.
This year our AGM this year will be held via Zoom.
Our Zoom AGM meeting will be held at 10.00am on Sunday 27th November.
Zoom password: 884215
We anticipate the meeting lasting 2 hours: ie. 10am to 12 noon.
Latest News
Peter Kreeft dives again!
In 2018, Franz Rothbrust of Historische Tauchergesellschaft e.V. (HDS Germany) gave a lecture at our Conference on a project to reconstruct a Kreeft diving suit. (A transcript can be found in our 2018 Conference Proceedings.) Around 1799/1800 Peter Kreeft lost a ship...
Subsea to Summit – 3 days on Snowdon
Having successfully climbed Ben Nevis in Standard Dress two years ago, the Working Equipment Group repeated the challenge on Mount Snowdon, the highest point in Wales. This year the team were raising funds not only for the Society but also for a little girl in Wales...
VERNON MONUMENT DEDICATION
On 15th July, under a cloudless blue sky, a ceremony was held at Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth to dedicate the Vernon Monument. Gunwharf Quays occupies the former location of HMS Vernon, the home of clearance diving for almost 75 years. The monument, a life-size...
