ROLAND MORRIS WAS THE NEAREST THING we had to a pirate in the 1960s. Not that this Cornish-born hardhat treasure-hunting diver was offended by the description. This salvager of ancient warships nightly spun tales of undersea derring-do to those who crowded into his 'maritime museum' - the Admiral Benbow pub and restaurant in Penzance.
In 1967, his became one of three diving teams with contracts from the Ministry of Defence to dive the wreck of HMS Association. But once it was found, divers without contracts came from all over Europe to the Scilly Isles to get their share of the thousands of silver coins spread over the seabed amid dozens of iron and bronze cannons.
Roland Morris tells of there being almost 100 divers in the water at a time over the treasure wreck, and of the three beautiful bronze cannon he later raised. When you heard him telling the tale, you had no doubt of his description as a pirate.
Not quite in character was the big biscuit-tin he would tip out onto tables in the Benbow, cascading pieces of eight into the tourists' laps. 'Never mind,' he would bellow, 'plenty more where that came from!' But the coins were carefully recovered before anyone was allowed out of the pub.
This year a Morris book about another treasure hunt in the Scilly Isles, first published in 1979, has been republished. HMS Colossus tells of Morris's salvage of some of Sir William Hamilton's collection of ancient Greek vases. Yes, that is the husband of Nelson's Emma Hamilton.
The homeward-bound Colossus sank in December 1798 after being blown on to Southward Well Reef near Samson.
The vases were, of course, smashed to pieces, but Roland sold the British Museum his idea of collecting the thousands of shards for museum experts to reconstruct.
The museum fell for it and made him a handsome loan towards the recovery costs. The divers collected 35,000 shards, many so worn at the edges after 175 years of bouncing around the seabed that few could be fitted together, let alone make a vase. Only one was ever reconstructed.
The story of the loss of the Colossus is told at length, and so is the hunt for the wreck, but the book will appeal to today's divers for the other treasure-diving tit-bits in it.
It's not often that you get a whole lot of treasure-diving tips relayed to you by a real pirate.
Kendall McDonald

(Periscope , ISBN 1904381383). Softback, 238pp, £14.99