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Dive Navy by Harry Wardle
Dive Navy by Harry Wardle
It was perhaps because I was in the Royal Navy myself - even though as a Hostilities Only (HO) rating - that I found Harry Wardle's autobiographical book Dive Navy so immediately arresting.
Harry's long and exciting naval career, as detailed in this book, falls into two distinct parts. The first is a graphic account of his life above and below decks through one of the Navy's most dangerous and desperate World War Two times. The other is his intimate and revealing story of post-war Navy diving and the dramatic advances made, sometimes under his command, in diving to great depths.
Lancashire-born Wardle joined the boys' training ship HMS Ganges, home for 2000 boys at any one time, in 1935, when he was 16 years old. Between 1936 and 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, he served in ships in Gibraltar, then in southern Ireland, and on the China stations during the Sino-Japanese war.
During the last war he served on destroyers - escorting convoys, hunting submarines, evacuating troops and seeing fearsome action in seas off Norway, France, Greece, Crete, Libya, Malta and the Far East.
Of the nine destroyers in the 1st Destroyer Flotilla in 1939, his was the only one to survive!
In 1945 his career moved into diving, and in 1948, on board the newly commissioned HMS Reclaim as Senior Diving Officer, his team captured the world deep-diving record from the Americans with a dive to 163m off Scotland. This record was later extended to 182m in a Norwegian fjord.
These dives were, of course, carried out using oxy-helium mixtures, which had caused some cases of convulsions and unconsciousness during early trials because of oxygen toxicity, the causes of which had yet to be identified. Yet, surprisingly, all RN divers were trained to dive to 90m on air when qualifying.
Harry started in the Navy as a Second Class Boy and ended up as a Lieutenant Commander and Deputy Superintendent of Diving at HMS Vernon. He retired in 1958 after 23 years' exemplary service.
Bernard Eaton
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Dive Navy by Harry Wardle (CPW Books, ISBN 0952316218). Softback, 256pp, £8
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