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The darp depths of the sea and the secrets it conceals have always exerted both fear and fascination, but even now, when man is exploring outer space, underwater exploration is limited to a depth of a few hundred metres below the surface.
The first diver was Gilgamesh, the hero of the Sumerian epic of 5,000 years ago, who dived to the depths of the sea with heavy stones tied to his legs to obtain the plant of everlasting life, while in early Greek mythology Theseus proved to Minos of Crete that he was the son of Poseidon by throwing a ring into the sea and diving down to recover it returning not only with the ring but also with a golden crown given him by the goddess Amphitrite.
The first actual diver known by name is Skyllias, who, according to Herodotus, was employed by the Persians to recover objects of value from sunken ships. Thucydides mentions the use of divers in the siege of Syracuse, while in the siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. divers wearing goat-skin suits were employed to destroy underwater barricades.
Aristotle mentions a type of apparatus that would allow divers to remain underwater for some time, while Pliny talks of divers using air tubes. In 385 A.D. Vegetius describes a diving-helmet with breathing tubes, while Leonardo da Vinci has left sketches of both submarines and diving gear.
Throughout all this time, however, sponge divers continued to use only to most primitive equipment, consisting of a heavy stone attached to the legs or arms by means of which the diver could descend to the seabed. Having gathered his sponges he would release the stone, which would then be drawn up again to the surface by a rope attached to it.
The sponge divers were very skilful indeed, and this accounts for the outstanding excellence of the divers employed in the Ottoman fleet from as early as the time of Mehmet the Conqueror right up to Sultan Abdulaziz. |
