There’s something very revealing at times about peoples’ names. Remember that a huge segment of our population derived their surnames from their ancestors’ original trades or employment. Just think about how many people you know whose last names are Cook, Smith, Carver, Baker, Carpenter, Speaker, Chandler, Flowers, Fryer, Gardner, Packer, Singer, Fisher, Taylor, Driver, and … Read more
I started diving in 1959, so I had my 50th anniversary last year. That’s not as bad as it sounds since my father, a senior naval officer, indulged my fascination with scuba after watching the first episode of Sea Hunt with me the year before. We then moved to a distant outpost called Key West … Read more
Back in the early 1970s I visited Palau for the first time and was killing time in Guam on my way back to the Virgin Islands when I bumped into an ex-Navy diver I had done submarine diving work with in the Caribbean earlier in 1971. I had yanked him out of a few tight … Read more
The British Virgin Islands’ most popular dive is far and away the magnificent wreck of the Royal Mail ship Rhone launched in 1865 at Millwall Ironworks in England. The ship was massive for its era featuring two main masts to spread a fully rigged sail plan as well as a steam powered engine driving a … Read more
Just after midnight on July 11, 1943 a U. S. Air Force bomber rumbled on to the flight line for takeoff from the Allied controlled field at Port Moresby, New Guinea. Capt. Ralph Deloach carefully eyed his instrument panel as the #2 engine sputtered and coughed before settling into a smooth synchronicity with the other … Read more
