— U-Boat Navigator explores the Tragic Triangle of Valletta: HMS Russell, HMY Aegusa and HMS Nastortium
The U-Boat Navigator research vessel is known for its expeditions to the legendary HMHS Britannic (see X-RAY MAG issue #69¹) in Greece, but the company also does extremely interesting research in its “home” waters of Malta
Through the centuries in Greece, Kea Island’s renowned statue, the Lion of Kea (one cannot see him from the shore, but I know he is there), continues to smile and look askance upon human vanity—exactly the same way he did in 1916, when during World War I, hospital ships were hit by mines and tragically sank in the Kea Channel. These ships, now wrecks, include HMHS Britannic and SS Burdigala.
It’s July, 2015, Greece. It’s very hot outside. Television commentators from various countries are passionately informing humanity that Greece is ready to leave the European Union, and an inevitable collapse shadows the nation.
In late April 2013, a dele-gation of 16 people from IAHD Adriatic – International Association for Handicapped Divers visited Moscow in Russia to become the first disabled divers to dive in the Hydro Lab of the Russian cosmonaut testing facility located in Star City.
The delegation to Star City included Slovenians Damjan Pek-lar (CMAS Instructor), Barbara Slaček and Aleš Povse-Yoda, as well as Croatians Zoran Vlah—who gets around in a wheelchair in everyday life—and Peter Maj-cen who is on crutches.
I can not stop feeling, that I am at the White Sea in the northern part of Russia. Mirror of blue water, islands and islets, bays and small bays. Clear water, birches along the shores. The difference becomes clear when you step out to the road. Good asphalt, bright yellow marking lines. What else strikes my eyes – everywhere ashore there are placed, as if by a landscape designer, dry tree sculptures, decorated with algae.
Where did you dive this summer? If a person is satisfied with the brief answer, “In Canada,” that means the person probably missed all his or her grade school geography lessons. Canada is a country of real contrasts. It is bath a densely inhabited strip of land along the US border with huge metropolitan centers such as Montreal and Toronto, where there are sky-scrapers and big businesses, as well as a vast country of wilderness territories in the north stretching out along the coastline.
Many, many divers, underwater photographers and filmmakers, when asked about the origin of their passion to go underwater, say that they were inspired by the films and books of Hans Hass. He must be a very remarkable person, interesting to listen to, not to mention, Dr Hass is the greatest celebrity in the diving world today. Is it possible to meet him, to talk?
Dr Hass was born in 1919. I know this fact and am enthusiastic about meeting him. He is the megastar in the diving research constellation. He gave thousands of interviews...
I wondered, would it will be interesting for him to tell his stories once more?
“The subject of oceanology is the study and research of the totality of events taking place in oceans, seas and lakes,” wrote geographer, academician and founder of Russian oceanology, Juli Shokalskiy, in 1917. Oceanology, or oceanography1 as it is more commonly called in the West, is an integral part of natural sciences. The ratio of water to land on the planet Earth is approximately 71 to 29 percent.
By this point in history, nobody had yet taken the responsibility of determining the validity of oceanography as a science.
