The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
This film is part of Free
Royal Navy Deep Sea Diving Centre
Clive Gunnell dons his own deep-sea diving suit for a spot of underwater welding.
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Overview
TV reporter Clive Gunnell is at the Royal Navy's Dive School in Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport in Plymouth. Known as clearance divers for work in clearing underwater mines and munitions, navy divers undergo rigorous training. They no longer use standard diving dress of a canvas diving suit, a copper or brass helmet and heavy shoes with a linesman above water who would be responsible for the lifeline or oxygen pipe. Rebreather systems made the apparatus self-contained.
Specialist navy divers were at first used to clear obstruction underwater by setting explosives during the Second World War. They developed to clear unexploded bombs from ports after booby traps had been laid to protect enemy interests during the war. An American animation series from 1960 named Diver Dan also lent its name to the standard dive suit. Modern frogmen came about after an Italian commando group used limpet mines against British ports in the Mediterranean. An Italian frogman acting as a human torpedo was captured at Gibraltar and a British unit was set up to copy the Pirelli-inspired frogsuit and the British adopted fins in 1942. Advanced navy diver training is still carried out in Plymouth.
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