Adventure in the Golden Age of Diving

Google’s on line dictionary defines “Golden Age” as “an idyllic, often imaginary past time of peace, prosperity, and happiness” or “the period when a specified art, skill, or activity is at its peak.”

When was “The Golden Age of Diving?”  In our nostalgic driven memories, the 1950’s would get a lot of votes.  Post-war prosperity meant time and money for leisure activities.  Skin diving, in the form of spearfishing, and later scuba diving offered an outlet for many men who still sought adventure after coming of age in the recently-concluded World War Two.  (Others would find it in motorcycle clubs).

By 1952, U.S. Divers was selling its trademarked “Aqualung” double hose regulator which became the icon for scuba equipment.  Other manufacturers were marketing other designs, some innovative and others down-right foolish.  “Sea Hunt” a television series starring Lloyd Bridges as ex-Navy frogman Mike Nelson started its four season, 155 episode run in 1958.  This weekly, half-hour, action-adventure show proved very popular among the viewing public and can still be seen in reruns today.  Many divers who were certified in the 1950s and 1960s cite the show as providing the motivation to take up scuba diving.

Diving became a popular topic for popular press as embodied in men’s magazines.  Any number of covers of these publications featured underwater scenes of men often locked in mortal encounters with sharks, eels, orcas, octopi, squid, barracuda or any other sea creature that might catch the fancy of the cover or story illustrator.  Take, for example, this image from True magazine from August 1954.  It features a diver clutching a knife in anticipation of having to do combat with one of both of the sharks that circle looking for a chance to attack.  

This image of man against nature is one of the conflicts in narrative writing.   The man against nature conflict positions the hero against an animal or a force of nature, such as a storm.  It creates tension which holds the attention of the reader be it Homer's “The Odyssey” Hemmingway's “The Old Man and the Sea,” Jules Verne's “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” Melville's “Moby Dick” or many a pulp magazine story.