CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS - 

    Juvenile books - Boy's Annuals, compendiums and adventure books. 

    HOMEPAGE

    TO MASTER LIST

    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).
    See also Juvenile - Pop-Up books


     
     
    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. 

    THE BOY'S OWN ANNUAL:  VOLUME XXXII  (32), 1910/11
    Published by: The Boys Own Paper Office, London. 
    Hard Back, illustrated green covers - 840 pages
    Dimensions: 29 cms tall by 21 cms wide
    The cover of this binding has to be seen to be believed.  It depicts a story inside of Alexander Lambert and his encounter with a shark while engaged on some work to a ships bottom, unfortunately the only helmet on the spine is on a Viking complete with shield and spear!  The article contains a full page monochrome print that was shown on the cover of the magazine dated 29th October 1910, followed by a short detail of the encounter on the following page - covering about a quarter of the page in three columns.  Unfortunately, there is no other diving content in the years magazines.  [pt]
    THE BOY'S OWN ANNUAL: VOLUME XLV  ( 45).
    Published by: The Boys Own Paper Office, London.
    Date:
    Large A4, hardcover. Well illustrated, but only one image relevant to under the sea. 
    Only the one page of relevant underwater text. 
    THE BOY'S OWN ANNUAL: VOLUME LII (52), 1929/30
    Edited by: Geoffrey R Pocklington BA 
    Published by: The Boys Own Paper Office, London in 1929/1930 .
    Hard back, illustrated red covers 864 printed pages.
    Dimensions: 28 cms tall by 21 cms wide
    This annual contains a 4 page article in the "Behind the Scenes" series of articles called "Divers and Diving", written by non other than R W Gorman Davis MA, Sir Robert Davis's son.  The illustrated article covers subjects like dressing the diver, self contained diving apparatus, submersible decompression chambers and deep sea diving armour.  In addition, there is a full page colour print entitled "Trapped om the Sea Bed", showing 5 divers in the throws of trying to rescuse submariners from a sunken submarine.
    [pt]
    Also green cover.

     
    GENERAL COMPENDIUMS
    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]
    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]
    ..
    (VICTORIAN READERS) FIFTH BOOK
    Published by the Victoria state government Education Department. Printed by Government Printer, Melbourne, 1940.
    When I was at primary school in the fifties, our 'reader' each year was a book of poems, factual stories and short stories that was used in the grade for all English education. It was published by the Victorian Education Department and although I cannot be certain, each 'number' book represented the primart school grade - so the 'Fifth Book' was for fifth-grade students. I cannopt remember this particular book, but I would have most certainly used it when at Princes Hill State School, and was therefore delighted when given a copy by bookseller/binder friend Peter Lendon. I don't think he knew that there was a 'diving' article in it, so that made it all the more interesting for me. A five-page story called 'The Hero of the Flooded Mine' tells the tale of divers Hughes and Hearn who rescued a trapped miner in a deep gold-mine at Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The miner survived in a large airpocket when the mine flooded. The divers took down food and encouragement to the miner who was eventually rescued after nine days and two hours in the mine after sufficient water was pumped out. I have little doubtr that the story is true but there is no indication of when the mishqap ocxcurred. The miner was named Modesto Varischetti. This brings back thoughts of the two Australian miners trapped for ten days in 2009, and of the thirty-plus Chilean miners eventually rescued after three months. Its a grear story and would have fascinated us kids back in my early school days. [ps]
    Note: For those of you not familiar with Australia, Victoria is a state of Australia. 
    .
    HEROES OF EVERYDAY ADVENTURE
    T C Bridges and H Hessell Tiltman
    Published by: George G Harrap, London in 1934.
    Hardback covers, no DJ, emboossee title and authors on orange cloth front board; gold titling on spine.  288 printed pages. 
    Dimensions: 21.5 cms tall by 15 cms wide
    This is an interesting book that gives the younger reader (and maybe the older reader too) an insight into hazardous occupations.  It contains an 18 page illustrated chapter called "Down in Davy Jone's Locker".  It describes the life of the diver and work done in Scapa Flow, on the Laurentic, the Egypt and others.   It is divided into 16 chapters, each sepeartely dealing with a hazardous job: "Hearts of Oak" (Lifeboatmen), "The Bravest Men in Blue" (Police), "Heroes of Industry", "Down in Davy Jones Locker", "Britains Fire-Fighters), "When Scentists Take A Chance", Human Flies (Steeplejacks), "Dangers AFloat" (Sea Heroism), "Coalfield Heroes", "Unarmed Pioneers" (Missionarys), "SOS" (Dramas of the Wireless at Sea), "The Railway Roll of Honour", "Everyday Rescues" (Cheating Death on the Spur of the Moment), "Facing Death for the Films" (Stuntmen and women), "Not Everybody's Job" (tunnelers, bridgebuilders) and "gallant Lads" (Scout heroes and some others).The book is illustrated with 29 monochrome plates, two of which ar diving related. pt],ps-nodj]
    .

    .
    .
    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
    Published by: Thomas Nelson & Sons, London c1919. (Not dated but inscribed)
    Hard back illustrated cover - 483 printed pages. Dimensions: 19.5 cms tall by 14 cms wide.
    This is a lovely book with a print on the cover of two boys looking at a vintage care and the car driver looking on (although the car would not vintage at the time of publication) and the spine has a gramaphone with a huge sound horn, the sound eminating out of the horn depicts the books name.  The book is on various subjects aimed at the younger reader which contains a 31 page chapter, mainly on diving, disguised under the title " Why the Wind Blows".  The section covers the diving bell, the diving dress and air pumps but also includes pneumatyic tyres, kites and barometers.  The author has also included a really nice line drawing of a diving helmet and explains the component parts in the text.  It is written in 21, very interesting chapters: "The Steam Engine", "The Conversion of Heat Energy into Mechanical Motion", "The Steam Turbine", "The Internal Combustion Engine", "Electrical Apparatus", "The Electric Telegraph", "Wireless telegraphy", "The Telephone", "Dynamos and Electric Motors", "Railway Brakes", "Railway Signalling", "Optics", "The Microscope, The Telescope and the Magic Lantern", "Sound and Musical Instruments", "Wind Instruments", "Talking Machines", "Why the Wind Blows", "Hydraulic Machinery", "Heating and Lighting", "Various Mechanisms" and "Airships and Flying Machines".  In the list of acknowledgements, the author mentions the firm of Siebe Gorman and Co Ltd among many others who have helped in his research.  As with all Archibald Williams books, they are so well illustarted with photographs and drawings.  Also look ate other books by him like "The Romance of Modern Mechanism" which contains a splendid diver on the spine of the book. [pt]
    Additional comment: My edition is the Thirteenth Edition - Revised, and has the same cover image as shown left but overall green rather than red. It is also undated, but with a woodword class prize dated 1931. This is a marvellous book and would have been a wonmderful educational aid for young boys and girls at the time - and indeed even now with referenmce to the basic physics. [ps]
    .
    STORIES OF ADVENTURE
    Subtitle: Thrilling Tales from Many Climes
    (No authors mentioned anywhere)
    Published by: Collins, London. (No date but estimate c1920)
    Hard back, illustrated cover;  446 printed pages. Dimensions: 20.5 cms by 14.5 cms wide.
     A book of seventy short stories by anonomous authors.  One is an illustrated seven page story called "The Diver" and seems to have been written by someone who was a pearl diver.  Book contains eight coloured prints and many monochrome drawings and plates relevant to each story. Not sure how true these stories are but the diver one seems real enough. [pt]

    Also listed:
    STORIES OF ADVENTURE
    Louise Kinch.:
    Published by Gunn and Taylor, Melbourne,  1944.. 

    STORIES OF ADVENTURE
    The Complete Novel of the Game Plus 46 Short Stories.
    Jack London. Introduced by Russ Kingman, and compiled by Frank Oppel.
    Castle Books USA 1980 First Edition 
    Hardcover;  dustjacket, 482 pp, b/w illustartions,  The book contains the complete novel of The Game, plus 46 short stories including: An Odyssey of the North, Brown Wolf, Love of Life, The Sun-Dog Trail, The Death of Ligoun, Seven Tales of the Fish Patrol, and others. 

    STORIES OF SEA ADVENTURE
    Frank Mundell
    Published by: The Sunday School Union, London in 1913
    Illustrated hard covers with 159 printed pages.
    Dimensions: 18.5 cms tall by 12.5 cms wide.
    Aimed at the juvenile reader, this compilation book contains factual stories about the sea. Despite the beautiful illustrated cover showing a diver tackling a shark , there is only partial content about diving - only a small 13 page chapter called "Diving Adventures". It contains several references to divers at work like Archie M'Gavin tackling "an immense octopus" while laying some wharfe blocks in New Zealand. Other divers recollections mentioned include Abraham Onderdond in the USA but the majority of the section on diving relates to the experiences of Andrew Cameron in the UK.
    The book is divided into 17 chapters: "Introduction", "Another Robinson Crusoe", "A Death Ship", "That's Not the Way at Sea", "Remarkable Deliverance", "The Wreck of the Oregon", "Castaways", "A Floating Volcano", "Encountering an Iceberg", "A North Sea Adventure", "In The South Seas", "Fifteen Days in an Open Boat", "A Cunarder to the Rescue", "Plucky Sailor Boys", "Unavailing Courage", Rescued from Fire" and Diving Adventures". 
    Beautifully illustrated with 12 full page monochrome prints, some photographs.  [pt]

    .
    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] 
    .,.
    .
    THE BOYS BOOK OF THE SEA
    W. H.  Simmonds.
    Published by: S W Partridge, London c1915.
    (No date in the book but contains a prize inscription dated 1915)
    Hard back with illustrated cover,  318 printed pages. Dimensions: 19.5 cms by 13.5 cms wide
    This juvenile book is more like a small encyclopaedia about the sea, in his introduction, the author described the book as a "collection of sea yarns".  There is some diving content, referring to the oyster divers in Whitstable (England) and the pearl divers of Thursday Island in Australia.  It also refers to "the Devil Fish" and divers, see the frontispiece.  The book has 12 full page illustrations, only one in colour and is divided into 10 chapters: "About the Sea and Its Wonders", "Some Early Voyages", "Discovering the New World", "Bold Adventurers", "Sailing Round the World", "The Sea-Rovers", "Crusoes and Their Islands", "Great Sea Fights", "In Polar Seas" and "perils, Disasters and Life Saving".  The final chapter contains some details of shipwrecks and salvage, including HMS Eurydice, The Royal Charter, The Mary Rose, The Royal George and HMS Gladiator. [pt],[ps]

    Don't you just love the illustration, right? It has it all - a treasure chest in perfect condition sitting on the seabed, and a battle with the proverbial giant octopus. They were the days!!!

    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] 
    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.
    THE WONDER BOOK OF WHY AND WHAT
    Published by: Ward Lock and Co Ltd, London c1950's 
    Hard back illustrated cover with dustjacket;  224  printed pages 
    Dimensions: 25 cms tall by 19 cms wide.  (Seventeenth  Edition reviewed here)
    A general knowledge book for children, very much in the same format is the "Wonder Book of Wonder" series.  It attempts the answer questions about "our complex and fascinating world".  There is a 3 page section entitled "What is at the Bottom of the Sea" and it is accompanied with a coloured print of a diver "goggle fishing in Californian Waters".  The book DJ and printed cover are identical and has a circular drawing depicting a hard hat diver using an oxy-acetylene cutting torch underwater.  The book boasts seven full colour plates and two hundred and twenty five photographs and diagrams. [pt]
    THE WONDER BOOK OF SHIPS
    Edited by Harry Golding.
    Ward, Lock & Co, Ltd. London & Melbourne.Hardcover, 256 pages, no index, many mono photographs, thirteen colour plates. 
    [Edition shown is Twelfth Edition - 'Almost Entirely New'. No date shown, but signed as a birthday gift in 1925]
    Never underestimate kids books. There is excellent material in this volume, especially the photographs of early ships.Of particular 'underwater' interest is a fourteen-page chapter on 'The Marvels of Wreck Raising', showing work donew on the Laurentic, Lutine and other ships; with two photographs of standard-dress divers at work. [ps]
    THE WONDER BOOK OF WONDERS
    Harry Goulding.
    Published by: Ward Lock and Co Ltd, London c1930Hard back illustrated cover - 255 printed pages Well illustrated but no further 'underwater' illustrations. Less than one page of text internally. Dimensions: 25 cms tall by 19 cms wide
    This general knowledge book for children has a lovely print of a diver on the cover drawn by G H Davis, a prolific illustrator who did many diagrams like this for many publications including the Illustrated London News - many were of diving subjects.  Unfortunately, there is only a small one page article by G H Davis himself entitled "Underwater-Salvage - The Wonderful Impliments of the Modern Diver".  In this particular issue of the book, there is also the cover print accompanying the article (in other words the print is inside as well as the cover) only there are not title details like shown on the front of the book.  The book was also published with this cover but no identical print inside.  Later when the book was published, the cover changed to show a polar bear and the Northern Lights overhead and the diving print was changed to show two divers recovering a treasure chest from a wreck. This particular issue of the book contains 13 colour plates plus very many monochrome plates and diagrams.  Other articles include the seven wonders of the world, X-Rays, Fire Fighting and many other varied short articles. [pt]
    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]
    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.
    London, Collins, n.d. (prize label 1919): 
    Hardcover,  pictorial cloth gilt; 316 pages, twp  advertisments, 6 colour plates (3 double-page); Size. 8vo. 

    SUNKEN GOLD AND OTHER STORIES OF ADVENTURE AND SCHOOL LIFE
    The Epworth Press,  London, 1932 1st Edition
    Hardcover, pictorial boards;   192 pages, coloured frontispiece, one full-page colour plate and four full-page black and white plates. The title story consisting of over half the volume is set in Australia. 

     

    CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS HOME

    This CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS site is sponsored by:

    OCEANS ENTERPRISES
    Publishers and Distributors
    303 Commercial Road, Yarram, Vic 3971, Australia
    Phone (03) 5182 5108   International  61 3 5182 5108
    Email: peter@oceans.com.au
    For
    OCEANS ENTERPRISES
    homepage, link on graphic.