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Things are stirring in Northern waters. My Leaks there tell me that the Infamous Five, who were caught red-handed stealing from the war grave of a World War One U-boat, as detailed by Beachcomber last month, have been sent to Coventry by local divers.
And not only have the locals stopped speaking to them, but they are finding it extremely difficult to find anyone to dive with them - or near them, for that matter.
In fact my Northern Leak, who first revealed the ghastly story of the Infamous Five hacksawing at brass fitments inside the sunken U-boat, told me that several groups cancelled diving on the well-known wreck of a merchant ship after they found an orange RIB with a 140hp Yamaha on the stern already in position on the site, and suspected that the grave-robbers were below.
Although the U-boat is not yet designated as a war grave - which means it has not yet been listed and approved by Parliament - it is expected to be among the new wrecks to be announced as war graves shortly.
All U-boats sunk in British waters could have been designated as war graves long before this. In late 2001, the Ministry of Defence invited the German government to nominate one U-boat sunk in British waters to represent all the others.
They had 178 WW1 casualties and 784 from WW2 from which to choose but as it happens, my best MoD Leak tells me, the Germans chose a U-boat that had simply disappeared, and had never been found in British waters.
That is why no U-boats were listed as official war graves. Under the forthcoming listings, all U-boats, including the one desecrated by the Infamous Five, will be out of bounds to divers seeking to enter them.
Until then, any members of that group, who are often said to boast about their U-boat "souvenirs", will continue to be ostracised by all decent divers.
Another new development is that one of my Leaks appears to have been approached by one of the Five, asking what they can do to put matters right and get back into the British diving world. If this approach is confirmed as genuine remorse, Beachcomber will consider the next step. But do not hold your breath.
You will be delighted to hear that Beach-comber has had an excellent response to his rare act of kindness in sending a birthday card. Beachcomber is usually not much of a one for sending greetings of any kind.
But in this case of a Grand Old Man of Diving, he broke his usual rule and sent an 80th birthday card to one of the few who are owed so much by British divers today.
Being Beachcomber, of course, he asked for a small donation in return to support the divEr Lifeboat Fund. Back has come a cheque made out to the RNLI for exactly the amount Beachcomber asked for - a small matter of eight crisp crunchies.
It just goes to show that not all divers are the tight-fisted monsters that their wives say they are.
Many years ago, Beachcomber reported on the fury of one of his warmwater Leaks on finding that a tourist diver had carved his name on a brain coral.
Apparently, the coral carver had laughed gleefully as he described how his signature would grow with the brain coral until everyone would know that "Tom Brown was here" - because it would be written on the coral brain in huge letters.
Beachcomber's story created a great deal of anger among all those who cared about coral reefs, but my Leak refused to pinpoint the carved coral. He said that if he revealed where it was, people would go to see it and others would copy it and carve their own names on other reefs.
His picture of reef after reef becoming vast billboards covered with divers' names and other unpleasant notices was horrifying. My Leak added that the carver's name was not Tom Brown, and that he was not going to give out his real name and the satisfaction of publicity.
The Leak was right, and after the initial storm about the carving, the affair seemed to have been forgotten. And so it was until last month, when Beachcomber received a call from the original Leak.
After years of diving elsewhere in the world, the Leak had found himself within easy boating distance of the carved brain coral.
Though seeing the reef again brought back sad memories, he could not conceal his glee when he managed to find the coral, which was much, much bigger than he remembered.
The carver's name had indeed grown with the coral. But it had grown so much down into the reef that it had been completely swall-owed up. No trace of it remained.
My Leak asked Beachcomber to tell divers the end result of the vandalism, to stop any other idiots carving on reefs.
However, divers of today are far more protective of marine life than those of years ago, and few would damage coral intent- ionally. He also asked me to make sure that the carver knew that his name was gone.
I would have liked to have done so, but he is no longer with us.
I mentioned a veteran diver earlier. On that theme I have been studying a US survey of reasons divers give for stopping or not stopping diving in their older years.
Beachcomber especially liked: "Hell, Cousteau was diving until his 80s. Why not me?"
"When they close the lid, that will be my last dive!" was another defiant response, as was: "I don't plan on stopping until it is physically impossible. And then I'll have someone tow me around for beer money."
Here are more inspiring declarations: "I'll likely stop if and when my doc tells me to. I'd like to go well into retirement under water."
"It's like driving - you know when you should stop, or when you become a danger to yourself and others. I just hope it's a long time from now."
"To butcher a phrase I read on the back of a truck, I'll quit diving when they prise the regulator from between my blue lips."
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