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A GLIMMERING IN THE DARKNESS
Graham Balcombe
Edited by: Duncan Price
Published by: The Cave Diving Group, UK in 2007.
Printed hard covers with 273 printed pages. Dimensions:
23.5 cms tall by 16 cms wide.
Although the author is listed as Graham Balcombe, it
is a collaboration between himself and the British Cave Diving Group.
The book contains a collection from the principal records in the “archives”
of Graham Balcombe on the events leading up to the foundation of the Cave
Diving Group. Apparently all the details were found in notebooks
in Grahams home after his death in March 2000. The notes span his
life in cave diving from around 1934 to the mid 1950’s and include the
help he received from Sir Robert Davis at Siebe Gorman & Co (there
was a dive in Wookey Hole caves in the UK in standard equipment but the
hoses were too restrictive). There is a note in the front of the book about
the title, it is in appreciation to Martyn Farr’s book on the history of
cave diving – “The Darkness Beckons”. [pt]
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CAVES AND CAVE DIVING.
Guy de Lavaur.
Translated by Edmund J. Mason from the French ‘Toute
la Speleologie'.
Hardcover, dust jacket, 175 pages, no photographs, several
drawings and charts.
First publsihed in Great Britain by Robert Hale (company),
no date recorded. My edition Scientific Book Club Edition, no date - probably
mid to late 1950s.
Perhaps the first specialist book on cave diving. Covers
potholes and underground rivers - the Nautical Expedition of 1929; sumps
and Vauclusian Springs; the evolution of speleology. Although I hqve dived
Mount Gambier, a dedicated cave diver would be better reviewing this specialist
book, but gathering by the demand I have had for the book, it is
very popular amongst the enthusiasts.
[ps] |
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CAVE DIVING IN AUSTRALIA
Ian Lewis and Peter Stace.
Self published, South Australia
First edition 1980, second edition 1982. ISBN 0
9594963 0 0
A most valuable book and sadly outof print for many years.
Provides a detailed description of the many freshwater
caves and sinkholes in the Mount Gambier district of south-east South Australia,
one of the famous freshwater caving regions in the world.
Softcover, 174 pages, sketches of cave and sinkhole profiles,
history, level of expertise required, equipment, access.
[ps] |
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DEEP INTO BLUE HOLES
Rob Palmer.
Published by Unwin Hyman Limited; copyright 1989.
Hardcover, dustjacket.
Andros is one of the largest islands in the Bahamas and
one of the least explored. Beneath the sea's surface its rocks are riddled
with caves which present the ultimate cave-diving challenge.
It was not until the late 1960s that a diving team, led
by George Benjamin and filmed by Jacques Cousteau, ventured into these
caves for the first time. They explored passages and discovered that, owing
to the presence of stalactites and stalagmites, these caves must have once
stood above the level of the sea. In 1981 British cave-divers returned
to Andros to launch an ambitious expedition to set the wheels of exploration
turning once more. Their work was continued in 1987 by the setting up of
the Andros Project which, using new underwater technology, made stunning
discoveries. It is the spectacular Blue Holes they found, with their unique
collections of creatures and beautiful corals, on which this book focuses.
Rob Palmer describes how, over a succession of dives, he and his team explored
this maze of caves reaching subaquatic depths of over 300 feet (90m). He
reveals not only the excitement and magic of diving long and deep into
the unknown but also the danger, drama and fear which must inevitably be
a part of pushing through one of the last true frontiers of exploration.
Palmer is one of the world's foremost underwater explorers,
a director of the Andros Project. A freelance writer, diver and photographer,
he has also helped produce three films on Blue Holes for the BBC and National
Geographic television. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
and Explorers' Club, and was awarded the first Colin McLeod Prize for outstanding
contributions to international diving activities by the British Sub Aqua
Club. (Ebay description). |
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DIVING INTO DARKNESS - A True Story of Death and Survival.
See below. |
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RAISING THE DEAD - A True
Story of Death and Survival
Phillip Finch.
Several editions: Hardcover published by Harper Sport,
an imprint of Harper Collins, London, 2008. Hardcover, dustjacket, 310
pages, 28 colour plates, index, appendix. (left top image)
Softcover, also published by Harper Sport, 2008.
(left bottom image)
A true story of death and survival in the world's most
dangerous sport, cave diving. Two friends plunge 900 ft deep into a water-filled
crater in the Kalahari Desert to raise the body of a diver who had perished
there a decade before. Only one returns. Unquenchable heroism and complex
human relationships amid the perils of extreme sport. On New Year's Day,
2005, Australian diver David Shaw travelled halfway around the world on
a journey that took him to the Kalahari Desert of South Africa, to a site
known locally as Boesmansgat: Bushman's Hole. His destination was nearly
900 feet below the surface. On 8 January, he stepped into the water. He
wore and carried on him some of the most advanced diving equipment ever
developed. Mounted to a helmet on his head was a video camera. David Shaw
was about to attempt what had never been done before, and he wanted the
world to see. He descended. About fifteen feet below the surface was a
fissure in the dolomite bottom of the basin, barely wide enough to admit
him and his equipment and the aluminum tanks slung under his shoulders.
He slipped through the opening, and disappeared from sight, leaving behind
the world of light and life. Then, a second diver descended through the
same crack in the stone. This was Don Shirley, Shaw's friend and frequent
dive partner, one of the few people in the world qualified to follow where
Shaw was about to go. In the community of extreme diving, Don Shirley was
a master among masters. Twenty-five minutes later, one of the men was dead.
The other was in mortal peril, and would spend the next 10 hours struggling
to survive, existing literally from breath to breath. What happened that
day at Bushman's Hole is the stuff of nightmarish drama, juxtaposing classic
elements of suspense with an extreme environment beyond most people's comprehension.
But it's also a compelling human story of friendship, heroism, unswerving
ambition and of coming to terms with loss and tragedy. (From fishpond.com.au
sales blurb, similar to book fly. [ps]
USA edition: Published as DIVING INTO
DARKNESS - A True Story of Death and Survival.
Hardcover and paperback published by St. Martins Press,
New York, 2008. Hardcover image left below; USA softcover on right.
The British and USA editions are identical in content.
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THE DARKNESS BECKONS
Subtitle: The History and Development of Cave Diving
Martin Farr.
Forward written by: Bill Stone.
Published by: Diodem Books, London; first published in
1980. This reviewed second-edition 1991.
Hard cover, black boards with dust jacket; 280 printed
pages. Dimensions: 25 cms tall by 20.5 cms wide.
This book tells the history of cave diving and its development
from the first know cave dive in France in 1878 thrugh to the development
of the Cave Diving Group in the UK when Graham Balcombe, Jack Shepherd
and others started cave diving in primitive equipment in 1936. It
goes on to show the spread of cave diving through the world but the book
is written from a British perspective. It is divided into three sections:
“Origing”, “Cave Diving in Britain and Ireland” and “International Diving.
The three sections are subdivided:
1-1 The Challenge of Cave Diving. 1-2
The Beginnings of Cave Diving. 2-1 Pre-War Cave Diving in Britain.
2-2 The Oxygen Phase. 2-3 The Cave Diving Group. 2-4 Aqualung
or Mixture Set. 2-5 The Transition to Air. 2-6 The Current
Approach. 3-1 Mainland Europe. 3-2 North and Central America.
3-3 Southern Hemisphere. 3-4 Future Possibilities.
Extremely well illustrated throughout with old photographs
(some in colour) and diagrams. [pt] |
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THE GREAT CAVING ADVENTURE
Martyn Farr
Subtitle: The Story of His Major Caving and Diving Expeditions
Published by: The Oxford Illustrated Press, UK in 1984.
Hard back, black covers with DJ – 229 printed pages.
Dimensions: 22.5 cms tall by 14.5 cms wide
Martyn Farr is one of the most experienced cave divers
in the UK, if not the world. This book tells some of the stories
behind some of his major diving expeditions in the UK and the rest of the
world including the Bahamas where he achieved a world record dive for the
time. A book of exciting pioneering exploration, tinted with hardships,
disasters and tragedy, it is divided into 12 chapters:
“A Near Disaster”, “The Luck of the Irish”, “Success
and Tragedy”, “The American Odyssey”, “A Free Trip to Iran”, “”The Ramshackle
Expedition to Iran”, “Explorations in the Peak District”, “The Mysterious
Blue Holes of the Andros Island” and “A World Record at Conch Blue Hole”.
Martyn was famous for his other book “The Darkness Beckons”
which he wrote in 1980 and this is described as being in the “Great Adventure
Series”, book number 2. Other books issued in this Oxford Illustrated
Press series are “The Great Railway Adventure”, “The Great Travelling Adventure”,
“The Great Walking Adventure” and “The Great Climbing Adventure”. [pt]
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