Steven Becker

Monthly Archives: September 2015

Since the beginning of time, men have gone into the water—some to collect food—some to see what lies beneath the waves. It’s hard to actually tell the exact date of the first dive, but we do know from recovered artifacts that the people of Mesopotamia dived to collect pearl oysters—and that early diving took place around 4,500 years ago. Later the Greeks of Thebes would dive for pearls and the Chinese were… Read More

For many centuries, people have practiced breath-hold diving. Evidence of this comes from many thousands of years’ old undersea artifacts that have been found on dry land. In Ancient Greece, breath-hold divers are well-known to have hunted and engaged in military activities under the sea. It took the invention of apparatus to help humans breathe underwater before many people could see the world underneath the ocean—before the apparatus, each dive was short,… Read More

“A gripping tale of pirate adventure off the coast of 19th Century Florida!”

Florida in the 18th century remained a lonely outpost of the declining Spanish Empire. Its most important mission was to secure the homeward route of the Spanish New World Treasure Fleets. These fleets had long funded Spain’s now-receding role in European and world affairs. The loss of the 1715 Fleet was another blow to the newly established Bourbon dynasties of Spain. Gold and silver in great quantities was homeward bound to King… Read More

It is unknown to many that the equipment used for Scuba Diving was actually originally designed for firefighting. Inspired by a fire accident two brothers saw, Charles and John Deane designed a “smoke helmet” that was to be used by firemen fighting fires in smoke filled areas. This early design was made up of a helmet made of copper with a flexible collar and garment attached to it. A leather hose was… Read More