CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS -
Juvenile books - Boy's Annuals, compendiums and adventure books. |
HOMEPAGE |
Please note: The books are listed for interest only,
and not offered for sale.
Where does one draw the boundary between 'juvenile' and 'young adult'? Some of these may well be of interest to the young adult, and some deserve a place in the collectors library. See also Juvenile
(general).
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THE BOY'S OWN ANNUAL
The annual is based on the publication of the (weekly?) periodical The Boy's Own Paper. This occasionally contained articles on diving. |
GENERAL COMPENDIUMS |
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A BOY'S TREASURY OF SEA STORIES.
Many authors. Illustrated by Will Nickless. Golden Pleasure Books, London, 1966. Second impression 1967. Hardcover, dustjacket, 356 pages. Contains twenty stories from the same number of authors, generally extracted from their major works. And what superb authors they are: Charles Kingsley with ‘Amyas and the Armada' from Westward Ho!; Daniel Defoe with ‘The Pirates' from (no, not Robinson Crusoe), Captain Singleston. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes of ‘Captain Sharkey", and not a sign of Sherlock Holmes. Robert Louis Stevenson writes ‘The Man with the Belt of Gold', from Kidnapped; Victor Hugo has an extract from ‘Ninety-three'. Alexander Dumas has an extract from his brilliant The Count of Monte Cristo; C.S Forester has a bit about Hornblower and the man who fewlt queer; feeling rather; Herman Melville has a piece called ‘The White Whale from you know what; Jules Verne is there with his 20,000 leagues etc; also Edgar Allan Poe, and H.G. Wells who writes ‘In The Abyss'. All great stuff but nothing on actual diving. [ps] |
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EAGLE BOOK OF MODERN WONDERS
Jointly written by: Cecil J Allen, George Howard, David Le Roi, Dennis May, Walter Shepherd, John W R Taylor and Martin Thornhill. Published by: Hulton Press, London in 1958. (Originally published in 1955, Revised and reprnted in 1957) Hardback covers with DJ - 192 printed pages. Dimensions: 26 cms tall by 21.5 cms tall. Do you remember th EAGLE comic in the 1950's with Dan Dare and all those lovely "cut outs" of various engineering wonders? Chapter 2 of the book is entitled "Exploring the Sea Bed", covering some 16 pages with interesting text and diagrams. Subjects covered vary from historical subjects like John Lethbridge to Beebe in the Bathysphere, to hard hat diving, deep sea exploration in Trieste and "frogmen who search for oil on the bottom the Persian Gulf". One of those "frogmen" photographed unless I am very much mistaken is non other than Jacques Cousteau. Several of the prints are done by G H Davis, who did many of the illustrations for the Illustrated London News and Siebe Gorman. Looking through the acknowledgements, Siebe Gorman are mentioned. Other chapters are titled; "Exploring Space" "From Muscle Power to Atomic Energy", "Heavyweights of Industry: Coal, Iron and Steel", "Speed and Efficiency on the Railways", "Building Ships and Keeping Them Safe", "Marvels of Modern Motoring", "The Worlds' Greatest Bridges and Tunnels", "Wings of Tomorrow", "New Weapons in the Doctors' Armoury", "Britains Police Force at Work", "New Ways Down on The Farm"< "The Camera Captures Time, Light and Sound", "New Raw Materials for Industry" and "Sending Silent Sound and Invisible Pictures". The book is very well illustrated with countless monochrome photographs, drawings and diagrams plus eight colour plates. [pt] ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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(VICTORIAN READERS) FIFTH BOOK
Published by the Victoria state government Education Department. Printed by Government Printer, Melbourne, 1940.
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HEROES OF EVERYDAY ADVENTURE
T C Bridges and H Hessell Tiltman
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HOW IT WORKS
Subtitle: Dealing In Simple Language with Steam, Electricity, Light, Heat, Sound, Hydraulics, Optics, etc. and their Application in Common Use. Archibald Williams
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STORIES OF ADVENTURE
Subtitle: Thrilling Tales from Many Climes
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STORIES OF SEA ADVENTURE
Frank Mundell
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THE AUSTRALIAN WONDER BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE
(Volume One shown on title page, but not on cover nor dustjacket). Published by the The News-Pictorial (The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd), Melbourne; no date (c 1950s). Hardcover, cloth boards, quarto-size, dustjacket (design is same for front and back except for colour images - image shown is of back of jacket showing a hard-hat diver seated rather bizarrely in what appears to be a mini wet-sub; you have to be kidding!!!). This volume (were here any others), has several articles of some interest to divers, but none on actual diving. An extensive 23-page article ‘Wonders of the Great Barrier Reef' is of interest of course, and includes two pages of full colour, and drawings of underwater animals (the colour and mono ‘underwater' photographs of corals are obviously taken of an aquarium tank). There is description of coral formation and, the ‘deadly species' marine life like the giant clam that can trap a man's leg, fishing and spearing of beche-de mer. How intersting that tourism gets a mention, and what better way to show how much fun it is to be on the Great Barrier than by a full page colour shot of a fine specimen of the female kind riding a turtle with the ‘reins' roped around the poor creatures front flippers. Thank God we have moved on from there! A twelve-page article ‘All About Submarines' would probably have been of greater interest to youngsters with a brief history on the subject before describing the modern submarine. Somehow, ‘human torpedoes' get a look-in, with rebreather equipment very similar to that on the cover of Douglas Duff's book ‘The Underwater Man'. The cut-away drawing of an un-named submarine is excellent. Safety equipment and escape procedures are mentioned, as are brief descriptions of several submarine disasters (S4, Truculent) that may have now destroyed any ambitions a young man may have of becoming a submariner. A 12-page article on ‘Plants of the Sea' is another of interest, with a fine colour plate of tropical fish, and many photographs. [ps] ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() . ![]() |
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THE BOYS BOOK OF THE SEA
W. H. Simmonds.
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THE INVENTIONS THAT CHANGED
THE WORLD
Edited and designed by The Reader's Digest Association Ltd, London.This first edition published by Reader's Digest Services Pty Ltd, Sydney, 1983. Hardcover, dustjacket, 365 pages, index, mono and colour illusrrations and photographs. Text subject matter in dictionary format, ie in aphabetic sequence. You would think that somewhere within this excellent book therev would be mention of underwater diving, so I go immediately to ‘diving'. Disappointingly, there is no entry - but there is one for ‘diving bell', with a drawing of Halley's bell, and a photograph of a modern Submersible Decompression Chamber. So lets go back to ‘A' and see what we can find. First up, ‘Aqualung' - thank God for that: nearly a whole page and two photographs. Next, Caisson, ‘first employed in England, 1851, by the civil engineer Sir William Cubitt. ‘Echo sounding' is next. ‘Hard-hat' diving is briefly mentioned in just one paragraph under ‘Pressure suit', ‘pioneered in Britain in 1837 by August Siebe, a German mechanic. His suits for deep-sea divers were made out of stout waterproof canvas with heavy screw-on helmets.' Submarines get a two-page entry, with the usual brief history. And that's it folks!!! No sign of a hard-hat anywhere. [ps] |
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THE WONDER BOOK OF DARING DEEDS:
TRUE STORIES OF HEROISM AND ADVENTURE
Ward, Lock And Co Ltd, London. Hardcover, pictorial boards; 256 pages. ‘Lots of Historical stories with many illustrations'. There are two stories of under water The Bethyshere being dropped into the ocean with two men in it, plus photos. O-12 submarine fitted out to go under the ice in the Arctic, plus photos. |
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THRILLS OF THE SEVEN SEAS
No author listed on title page. Pubished by Dean & Son Ltd., London. No date: suggest 1940s. Hardcover, picture boards (no dustjacket), 124 pages, medium format, thick porpous paper, eights pages of mono photographs on gloss paper, including the launching of the Queen Mary, and other ships, many line drawings. This is a boys book, and a very good one it is - I would have been delighed to have read this as a lad. Chapters include Grim Mystery; Race of the Ocean Giants; Pirates of the Panama; Frozen Menace; Brigands of the Seaways; The Secret of Dead Man's Deep; Castaways and Stowayas; Raiding Davy Jones; For the Freedom of the Seas. That this is a ‘boy's own adventure' book does not detract from its factual interest for adults, and the ‘Davy Jones' chapter covers the loss of vessels such as the Lutine, Moltke, Birkenhead, Egypt, Lusitania, and Hidenburg. [ps - my copy was apparently thoroughly enjoyed by its young reader as it has the occassional scribble mark, and is well read - I now have a second, better copy] |
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WARNE'S ADVENTURE BOOK FOR BOYS
Edited by: John England Published by: Frederick Warne & Co Ltd, London c1930. (No date or inscription) Printed hard cover. Pages not numbered. Dimensions: 25.5 cms tall by 19.5 cms wide This is a really nice adventure book for boys but despite having the underwater scene on the cover and the diver on the spine brandishing a large axe, there is no diving content. The book has no numbers on the pages but has four coloured plates and countless monochrome line drawings. [pt] |
BOOKS WITH DIVING CONTENT???
It is likely that the following books have some diving content but I have not been able to cnfirm this. Any advice would be appreciated. |
THE BOYS' BOOK OF BRAVERY DEEDS OF DARING ON LAND AND SEA
R. Power Berrey, C. Arthur Pearson Ltd London 1902 1st Edition. Hardcover; viii, 318 + advertisements. Scarlet, black, white and gilt decorated boards and spine. Octavo size.Gilt to edges. Illustrated with black and white plates.. THE WORLD OF PERIL. STIRRING STORIES OF ADVENTURE.
SUNKEN GOLD AND OTHER STORIES OF ADVENTURE AND SCHOOL LIFE
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