season's
readings
When you're stuck for a Christmas present, a book is often the answer. Diver turns the pages of some recent publications with an eye to their gift acceptability rating
POSITIVE ID
The thing about fish and reef guides is that there are hundreds of them out there. Most use an old and simple recipe - collect vast numbers of photographs, stir in some convincing scientific words, add a sprinkling of why you'll rarely see the species concerned (often coinciding with a badly taken photograph) and there you have it -a marine guide book.
Helmut Debelius has developed his own recipe, fresh from the school of diving around the world for 25 years. Each of his two new hardback guidebooks, Mediterranean and Atlantic Fish Guide and Indian Ocean Reef Guide, contains more than 800 high-quality colour photographs with descriptions of the species described.
Now here's the difference that makes the difference. Wherever possible, Helmut has added flavour to his guide book by adding small pinches of his own experience. As well as describing interesting marine behaviour such as the sex life of blennies and why flatworms are "absolutely fabulous", Helmut also explains how you should go about finding the subject concerned on a dive.
Interspersed within each of the books are about 20 short pictorial stories covering a number of subjects: descriptions of unheard-of dive sites and islands; unusual marine-life behaviour; wrecks; weather patterns and accounts of various expeditions to new locations.
Helmut has got the marine guide recipe right. Although these books are expensive at £29.95, each of them will help to add flavour to your future diving trips. Brendan O'Brien
Mediterranean and Atlantic Fish Guide and Indian Ocean Reef Guide by Helmut Debelius, AquaPress (01702 462466). Hardback, 306/322pp, £29.95
HOW MUCH TIME HAVE YOU GOT?
Another in the highly successful series by New Holland, The Dive Sites of the Bahamas by Lawson Wood maintains the high standard already set.
It follows the usual format devised by series consultant Nick Hanna, with each dive site named and linked by number to a clear map, and a description of its location, access, sea conditions, average and maximum depths and expected visibility. A brief description of the dive then follows.
The formula dictates a star rating for both scuba and snorkelling, providing a short cut to what the author considers the best dives. Symbols describe economically whether a site is suitable for shore-diving or live- aboard, for what level of diver and so on.
The facts appeared to be accurate and quite useful. If there is a weakness, it is from the fragmented nature of the destination. Of the 700-plus islands that make up the archipelago, the publisher has wisely concentrated on diving favourites Grand Bahama, New Providence, Abacos, Eleuthera, Berry Islands, Bimini Islands, Long Island, Exumas, Andros and San Salvador.
However, it would be a lucky traveller who could use the whole volume. Time and money usually dictate that we must confine ourselves to one or two of these places, so there will be many visitors who find that only a few pages of this excellent guide book are relevant.
However, if a reader enjoys a visit to one of the more easily accessed islands such as New Providence or Grand Bahama, The Dive Sites of the Bahamas might stimulate him or her to visit a less-popular outer island or take a live-aboard cruise to some of the remoter cays - from which there are more than 2000 to choose! John Bantin
The Dive Sites of the Bahamas by Lawson Wood, New Holland (0171 724 7773). Softback, 176pp, £15.99.
SHARKS: STILL A TOUCH OF FEAR
Attitudes to sharks have altered dramatically. Where they were once thought voracious and undiscerning predators, and old diving manuals warned that if you saw a shark you should leave the water immediately, nowadays divers are exhilarated by a close encounter.
Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch became well known for his best-selling book Shark - A Photographer's Story (now out of print), which probably owed its popularity to the book-buying public's morbid fear of such animals.
Red Sea Sharks is a more modest production measuring only 15 x 21cm but it is aimed at divers. Part of a new series of In Depth Guides, it details the species that one might be lucky enough to see while diving in the Red Sea, but still contains some evidence of the popular media attitude to sharks.
The first of two parts deals with biology and behaviour. Most of the writing reflects the author's own feelings about the animals, and half of this section discusses the dangers of sharks, "the warning signs of an imminent attack", "attacks on divers" and "when things go wrong".
I feel this plays on those unspoken fears we all have, and after reading it aboard a boat in the Red Sea I started having second thoughts about wanting a confrontation with one of these magnificent creatures!
"The tiger shark is known to be a man-eater." I wonder if the sharkwranglers who handled a number of tiger sharks for the James Bond movies know that! Such a bald statement leaves the reader convinced that he never wants to meet one.
Those reservations apart, the book is full of useful facts and interesting, colourful photographs by the author. The second part is a structured compendium of the 15 types of shark which are indigenous to the region.
One (beautifully photographed) small coral head at Sangeneb in the Sudan gets more than its fair share of photographs in the book. I know Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch spent three weeks there tempting sharks to it with concealed fish bait, and therefore got plenty of shots, but it does add a little repetition to this otherwise excellent little volume.
Alas, thanks to a shark-finning industry that aims to satisfy burgeoning demand in the Orient, sharks are less numerous than they were in the Red Sea. Count yourself lucky if you see any.
John Bantin
Red Sea Shark by Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch, Trident Press (0171 491 8770). Hardback, 96pp, £14.95; Softback, £9.99
MOST INTERESTING, PROFESSOR
Professors write boring books. That used to be one of life's certainties, but not any more. Breaking all the rules of professorship Trevor Norton, Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Liverpool, has written a delightful book called Stars Beneath the Sea, which he has subtitled The Extraordinary Lives of the Pioneers of Diving.
His choice of pioneers is somewhat quirky. For example, he deals in Chapter One with Guy Gilpatric, who earns his place as a pioneer of free-diving (alias spear-fishing) in the Med in the late 1920s and Ô30s.
Names of pioneers not all that familiar to today's diver splash through the book. Remember Henri Milne Edwards? I didn't, but thanks to Professor Norton I now know he led the first-ever marine biology underwater expedition off Sicily in 1844, diving with a kind of fireman's helmet held down by long stirrups for his feet and an air tube from a giant rocker pump tucked into it.
William Beebe, described by Professor Norton as looking like "an alert egg", made record-breaking dives in his Bathysphere, but some of his other efforts were not very scientifically correct - he shot a whale shark with his revolver and would bring down flying fish with a shotgun from his boat.
Did you know of Horace Cameron Wright of the Royal Naval Physiological Laboratory? He tested bouncing bombs for the Dambusters, gauged the effect of underwater explosions on himself until badly injured, and acted as human guinea-pig for free ascents without equipment from 90m.
Cousteau appears as a sort of bit-part player in a chapter on the real pioneer of underwater archaeology, "Didi" Dumas. Professor Norton has a nice sharp style of writing and he taught me a lot, which is what professors are meant to do, aren't they? Kendall McDonald
Stars Beneath The Sea by Trevor Norton, Century (0171 840 8400). Hardback, 282pp, £12.99.
WATER LIGHT TIME BRILLIANT
Underwater photographers! Sell your equipment at the next car boot sale, trash your trannies and burn your negatives! You will never take a photograph as good as any in David Doubilet's latest book, Water Light Time. Save yourselves the anguish of defective O-rings, flooded cameras, and all that precious underwater time spent hanging round waiting for the blind miner-shrimp to make an appearance. Get down to the bookshop instead.
Am I over-reacting? Hold a copy of this exquisitely produced tome in your hands, peruse the pages, some reproduced in four-colour black and white (no, that's not a contradiction in terms) and make up your own mind.
David Doubilet is 52 and has concentrated on being a top underwater wildlife photographer since he left school. He has contributed to National Geographic since 1972. Practice makes perfect and this collection of shots represents the acme of his achievement to date.
What are you interested in? Long-nosed hawkfish? Galapagos sea-lions? Pacific mantas? Whale sharks? Jellyfish? Octopus? Turtles? Anemonefish? Corals? Sea-horses? They're all there. Would-be exponents of the underwater photographer's art - look and weep!
Of the half-million underwater photographs I've made, I have enough of this standard to fill a pamphlet. Water Light Time is a 5cm-thick coffee-table volume with nothing but glorious image after image. Text is relegated to tight descriptions printed so minutely that anyone over 25 will need a magnifying glass to read it.
Some photographs will be familiar, others not. But if the subjects sound predictable, Doubilet's unique interpretation always transcends ordinariness.
Water Light Time is a celebration of why we go diving. I'm surprised that Kodak and Fuji have not suppressed its publication - they make fortunes from the millions of photographs optimistically exposed each year. This book doesn't encourage us by showing what's possible for the underwater photographer - it simply reveals how far we have to go.
John Bantin
Water Light Time by David Doubilet, Phaidon Press (0171 843 1000). Hardback, 224p, £29.95
CHANNEL NUMBER ONE
I was impressed by World War One Channel Wrecks as soon as I took it out of the wrapping. It just smelt of high-quality hardback. Flipping it open at random, the format reminded me of the Shipwreck Encyclopaedia series, but the differences soon became apparent.
Neil Maw has provided a detailed history of the sinking of every single ship, from the smallest trawler to the largest battleship. Among these stories are great tales of heroism at sea and some amusing episodes - like the fishermen who abandoned ship, only for their dinghy to be accidentally crushed by the attacking U-boat. The reticent U-boat captain took the crew on-board for a few days while he made further attacks, then off-loaded them to the lifeboat of another ship he sank!
The maps showing approximate positions will be useful during the early planning of dive trips. I did a spot-check on the entries for some of the better-known wrecks and could not fault the accuracy of information.
The wreck details include just about everything a diver wants to know about a wreck, except precise details of how to find it. The positions given are mainly "official", with a few approximate. None are recorded from the GPS of a dive boat.
I can't really object to this because the book doesn't purport to be a dive guide. With that in mind, my usual gripe about lack of clarity of the co-ordinate system used and little indication of the accuracy of individual positions is somewhat irrelevant.
Overall, World War One Channel Wrecks is a wonderful work of obsessive research that will be of interest to any South Coast wreck-diver, and also those travelling to the French side of the Channel. The stories of wrecks further out to sea will no doubt provide inspiration for the growing trend to locate and explore deeper "virgin" wrecks.
Write your letters to Santa Claus and stretch your Christmas stocking extra wide to receive it.
John Liddiard
World War One Channel Wrecks by Neil Maw, Underwater World Publications (0181 943 4288). Hardback, 328pp, £24.95
SOULFUL SOULS
Perhaps we have less imagination, but you'd be unlikely to find a collection of writings on diving like Down Time from a bunch of British writers.
Divers in this country might enjoy a good underwater view, but while we're busy surveying wrecks, ID-ing marine life and weighing up what equipment to buy, our US counterparts - on the evidence of this book at least - are preoccupied with relating their experiences in the watery depths to their inner beings.
That is intended not as criticism but as an observation, because this collection of 35 stories and articles, poems and extracts from US (and some European) writers can hardly fail to catch the imagination of any diver.
It's full of good writing and, as on an absorbing drift dive, you'll find you've been swept through to the end before you know it.
The contents are bookended by the observations of pioneers such as William Beebe, Guy Gilpatric and Phillipe DiolŽ. While these tend towards the "man-against-raw-nature" approach of their times, they do help to put contemporary attitudes in perspective. And some more recent writing, like Tim Cahill's Shark Dive, is equally hairy-chested.
Highlights include the thoughtful works of blockbuster author and director Michael Crichton - Sharks and Bonaire - while Robert Stone's fictional account of a Caribbean dive It's Out There, like David Poyer's Orange Grove Sink and Eugenie Clark's chilling Little Salt Springs, succeed only too well in transporting the reader into uncomfortable diving situations.
Another standout is The Mole Tribe, by that top-class diving writer Bucky McMahon, a sometime contributor to Diver. And although the first selection in Down Time by James Hamilton-Paterson verges on the pompous, it is Compressor, his short story in which the protagonist dives on a primitive umbilical to insane depths, that really had me on the edge of my holiday deckchair.
I started reading Down Time thinking it was all going to be a bit too ethereal, but there's no getting away from it, diving is other-worldly. I closed the book thinking we could probably do with a bit more soul-baring in British dive-writing. But then, that just isn't our style.
Steve Weinman
Down Time, edited by Ed, Casey & Jim Kittrell, Gazelle Books Services (01524 68765). Hardback, 264pp, £11.99
RICH BY ASSOCIATION
The best of British treasure wrecks, the Association in the Scilly Isles, has been a source not only of hoards of gold and silver coins, but of books, articles and entries in thousands of divers' logbooks.
Now here comes another book on the subject. This time the authors are both Association divers: Richard Larn, who was onto it at the very beginning of the gold rush, and Peter McBride who, although best known to archaeological divers for his work on Coronation and Ramillies, is an authority on the Scilly site of Sir Cloudesley Shovell's flagship as well.
The book, Admiral Shovell's Treasure, is a good read. It is, as you would expect from these two, well researched, to the extent of including the names of the crews lost from the ships sunk with Association on 22 October, 1707, and the payments to each beneficiary!
The book is well-timed. The salvors in possession are now launching a special search for the stern of the Association, which was said to have broken off in her wrecking and has never been found.
Missing with it, say the authors, are the admiral's personal gold tableware - enough for 60 diners - most of the ship's navigational instruments and even her rudder and the 18 pintles which held it. Finding that will make another book!
Kendall McDonald
Admiral Shovell's Treasure and Shipwreck in the Isles of Scilly, by Peter McBride and Richard Larn, Tor Mark Press (01209 822101). Softback, 202pp, £14.99; hardback £19.99
TWO TECHNICAL
International Textbook of Mixed Gas Diving - Theory, Technique, Application: the title says it all. The style is heavily academic and the text and presentation laden with mathematics. This is not aimed at the average sports diver, but at the offshore diving industry, with extensive details on saturation diving, chamber and bell operations.
However, there are no doubt recreational divers with good mathematical backgrounds who will enjoy the challenge of this book. If you are planning a saturation diving mission to the Britannic, it will help you work out your gas requirements.
More accessible is Gary Gentile's work. Having enjoyed his earlier book The Ultimate Wreck Diving Guide, I was looking forward to his updated version, The Technical Diving Handbook. I was not disappointed. The author's relaxed style, with anecdotes drawn from extensive experience, makes it easy, entertaining reading.
In addition to the usual issues of nitrox and trimix diving, Gentile includes sections on diver propulsion vehicles, rebreathers and wireless communications. The equipment section has the most comprehensive review of methods for peeing in a drysuit I have ever read! The author even describes his experiences of evaluating the various systems at home!
He should also be congratulated on his open and non-dogmatic review of equipment configuration. A refreshing attitude after the excesses of the "doing it right" fascists.
I have a few complaints. Some tables seem to have been slipped in as an afterthought, and would serve no useful purpose even had they been better laid out and explained. Also, the sequence of information would be much improved by putting peripheral equipment and issues such as diver propulsion and communications to the back.
Finally, I feel it is a misnomer to create a "handbook" in such a large format. Handbooks should be hand-sized, not desk-sized! But whatever its size, this was a book I was sorry to return.
John Liddiard
International Textbook of Mixed Gas Diving by Heinz K J Lettnin, AquaPress UK (01702 462446). Paperback, 264pp, £18.99
The Technical Diving Handbook by Gary Gentile, AquaPress UK, Softback, 192pp, £24.99
MUST TRY HARDER
A good shipwreck guide is nothing like as easy as it looks to produce. Certainly Nigel Clarke should have taken more care with his booklet Shipwreck Guide to Lyme Bay for Divers and Skippers. It needs far more research - there are at least seven ships in it with names mis-spelt, and one of those is listed as "not positively identified", though Clarke apparently does not know that divers have raised the bell.
Another wreck is named as UB-62, which can't be right as that U-boat survived WWI. But all is not lost - Clarke tells us in his foreword that he hopes to update this potentially useful booklet. Perhaps one for next Christmas? Henry Kay
Shipwreck Guide to Lyme Bay for Divers and Skippers by Nigel Clarke, Nigel J Clarke Publications (01297 442513). Softback, 40pp, £4.99
Appeared in DIVER - December 1999
