The History of Oilfield Diving
An Industrial Adventure
By Christopher Swann

847 pages

     There are only a handful of books on commercial diving. Out of them, only a precious few have much to say about oilfield diving. Out of those, only two or three rise to the top of your gotta-have list. This book will probably turn out to be one of those. Swann has written an excellent book on diving history.

       The book picks up at the turn of the century in the coastal derrick fields off Santa Barbara and chronicles the development of oilfield diving on the west coast, and subsequently the world. It does read perhaps a little biased toward the west coast crowd; Joe Savoie receives scant mention, for example, and there is a feel of greater empathy for the west coast than the Gulf. But that is to be expected - not only was oilfield diving born on the west coast, that's where Swann did his diving, too. But down here in the swamp we likes our Savoies and Vidrines, you know. But even without enough gumbo, the book is as comprehensive a history of commercial diving as you are going to find. It remains the best and biggest this reviewer has ever read.

    One aspect of this thick sonofabitch that you’re going to love is the way it reads. Not boring at all. Swann is a smooth, efficient, and entertaining writer. Throw this one in your chamber bag.
     Well done Mr. Swann. Thanks.
     The book was published in November 2007 and sells for $80 from www.oceanautpress.com. Copies are already turning up on the internet for sale at $120+ (Date today: Feb 2008), so it's gonna be one of those; Oceanaut has about 400 left.

Diving in High-Risk Environments

From the Hammerhead Press - 254 pages

     This book is all about how to jump into a barrel of shit and come up smelling like... well, shit. But safely, and with professionalism. They say there is no replacement for experience - true enough; and Barsky's book will serve you well on the way to acquiring it. Each of nine chapters includes a case history of real-world events. The first is a body recovery in a vat of raw sewage. Tough way to go. Barsky covers everything from dive planning, inoculations for dive crew, site analysis, dive preparation, the diving, decontamination after the dive of the divers and gear and plenty else; everything you need to know before swimming with the corn.

      Of course it's not just about diving in sewage. There are many different situations where you need protection from the water around you and a host of hazards waiting for the unprepared. A short list would include: bacteria, protozoan's, toxic dinoflagellates, flammable liquids, oxidizing agents, poisons, corrosives, water reactive substances... It goes on and on. Sections on scuba and surface supplied diving cover a range of different gear both suitable and unsuitable. Tools, equipment, recovery hoists; you name it. Ten pages toward the back of the book have some of the most important info between the covers and that is exposure times for various gear from various manufacturers. For example: you enter an environment with a 10% concentration of Carbon Disulfide wearing your trusty Viking Pro drysuit. Better work fast because you only have about 60 seconds before the CD breaks through the drysuit material. There's another chart which gives SL-17 diaphragm pass/fail grades for various chemicals. Good to know. Overall, an interesting and worthwhile read. Available from the Hammerhead Press.

Cast A Deep Shadow
Joe Savoie, The Early Oilfield Divers and the  Invention of the Modern Diving Helmet
Gary L Harris
189 pages

     What a time to be a diver! If the technology of diving is your thing; get this book. If you ever wondered about what it was like in the oilfield 40 years ago; get this book. If you’ve ever stood at the edge of the boat about to jump and had a  thought about all the divers before you; get this book. Harris tells the story of Joe Savoie as only a diver could.
     Did you know Savoie invented the neck dam? Where would we be without it? He never  patented it in order that other hat makers could freely use the technology to build safer helmets. Ever hear about the International Association of Professional Divers? Harris's book is as much a primer on oilfield history from a diver's perspective (oh well, screwed again) as it is the story of a genius level inventor that happened to get into a particular industry and wound up revolutionizing it.
    Fascinating read. Pictures abound. The blueprints of the Savoie hat are especially interesting. Pictures even of some of the machines that Savoie built in order to build his hat. Oh, and the old story of the sat diver that got his intestines sucked out his butt - it's in here too (it wasn't Savoie). But that is just an aside from the intensely interesting story of Joe Savoie.
     Savoie died in 1996 and is buried in Bayou Gauche. The headstone doesn’t say much about diving. It does mention Savoie’s Air Force rank, and the book contains more than a few bits of information about Joe Savoie’s time in. Seems he was known for being pretty much able to build anything out of nothing. Joe Savoie was a genius and sure, you can bet somebody would have thought of the neck dam concept eventually; but Joe Savoie thought of it first.

      An excellent read.

     Contact author Harris at glhbooks@cs.com.

The Simple Guide To
Commercial Diving
Steven M Barsky and Robert W Christensen
161 pages

     You've probably heard it a hundred times and seen in every dive school brochure - dive school grads make a 100K per year, it's a glamorous life, you work all over the world,  chicks dig it, etc... Yeah, well, we all know that's just so much sugar coated crap. Here's a  book that pretty much tells it like it is. The information inside is a little dated but that's just because Barsky and Christensen are not working oilfield divers anymore. For example, the authors mention that a knife is essential equipment for a tender on deck. And rightly so. But these days the oil companies shit themselves at the sight of a knife offshore and most dive contractors have knuckled, telling their tenders not to use knives. So a lot of the information in this book is the old school foundation of our current practices. Very good to know.
     The Simple Guide To Commercial Diving has chapters introducing you to commercial diving, where to get training, what that training will be like, where to work after school, what that'll be like, and what your career options are. There is page after page of information on tools, rigging, and diving practices. Chapter Seven - Employment As A Tender - is the most accurate take on this very important part of your career that I have ever seen. Click here to see more of what's between the covers and download a chapter.  Every tender and most divers will benefit from this book.