The Loonliness of a Deep Sea Diver

David Harrison Beckett, My Autobiography

David Harrison Beckett, Paul Zanon

• Publisher: Pitch Publishing
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785311536
• Year: 2016

Imagine living in a box at the bottom of the sea for a month at a time. Locked away in a saturation chamber, plumbed to depths of more than 500 feet, this has been David Beckett's love, life, and work for all his adult life. He brushed with death on more than one occasion—such as when called in to assist when the MS Estonia sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994 and claimed 852 lives. Among the depths of despair, there are lighter moments, including treasure hunting in the Philippines, almost clinching a contract to salvage the bursar's safe from the Titanic, and surviving a 24-hour typhoon which brought 80-foot waves crashing down on his boat. The Loonliness of a Deep Sea Diver is gritty, sometimes comical, and offers a unique glimpse into a life at sea, much of it at the bottom.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Prelude
• 1. David Harrison Beckett
• 2. Becoming A Bubble Head
• 3. No Air
• 4. Blowout
• 5. Learning All The Time
• 6. Not A Nice Place
• 7. Escravos
• 8. George The Welder
• 9. Certainly Not Football
• 10. Milk Bottles
• 11. Rolls-Royce Diver
• 12. Chamber Life
• 13. Nowhere To Run
• 14. Becoming A Grown-Up
• 15. O Is For Oblivion
• 16. Fire In The Bell
• 17. Whoops
• 18. The Death Of A Platform
• 19. Making History
• 20. Missed Opportunities
• 21. Rumbled
• 22. More Helicopters
• 23. Fun In The Jungle
• 24. Another Plough Bites The Dust
• 25. Typhoon
• 26. Hell
• 27. Madame Guillotine
• 28. Knock Me Out
• 29. Spooks
• 30. Life On Mars
• 31. Union Rules
• 32. My New Best Friend
• 33. More Meetings
• 34. Divers Will Be Divers
• 35. Desk Jockey
• 36. Safety
• 37. Family
• 38. Treasure
• 39. Granddad
• Photographs