Skip to content
1882
Submerged: Diving and the Undersea in Environmental History
  • ISSN: 2506-6730
  • E-ISSN: 2506-6749
file format pdf download PDF
read_more Read side by side viewer icon HTML

Abstract

Abstract

The introduction to this special issue of the argues that diving has been and remains a crucial practice for experiencing the sea, studying the underwater environment, and exploiting life and resources below the surface. Given the precarious state of the world’s oceans, knowledge of the past is essential to understanding the present. In addition, the exploration and exploitation of the undersea environment continues to challenge history and its sub-disciplines: it forces the blue humanities to recognize how deeply knowledge of the undersea – including scientific, intellectual, physical, and emotional knowledge – has been intertwined with diving as a technological practice. As a first step, the introduction reviews the state of historical research. It does so by proposing three chronological steps, namely 1) the ways in which helmet diving systems up to the mid-twentieth century were implicated in the exploration and exploitation of the undersea, 2) the ways in which the diving revolution of the 1950s drove high-modern approaches to the undersea, and 3) how the 1970s and the environmental age changed the ways in which divers imagined and perceived the world below the surface. In a second step, the introduction suggests four productive avenues for future historical research and outlines how the articles in the special issue contribute to them: 1) diving, oceanography, and state power, 2) diving technologies and aquatic economies, 3) body, gear, and gender, and 4) making kin with the multitude of marine life.

© 2025 Brepols Publishers n.v.
This is an open access article made available under a cc by-nc-nd 4.0 International License.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1484/J.JHES.5.149763
2024-01-01
2025-12-04

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jhes/9/1/J.JHES.5.149763.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1484/J.JHES.5.149763&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Primary sources
    Aristotle (1926) Problemata (translated and commented by E.S. Forster), Oxford.
  2. Becket, D. H. (2016) The Loonliness of a Deep Sea Diver, Durrington.
  3. Beebe, W. (1926) The Arcturus Adventure. An Account of the New York Zoological Society’s First Oceanographic Expedition, New York.
  4. Clark, E. (1951) Lady with a Spear, New York.
  5. Clark, E. (1969) The Lady and the Sharks, New York.
  6. Cousteau, J.Y. and Cabrières, H. (1944) ‘Une caméra par 62 mètre de fond, Journal France Actualités, February 18, https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/video/afe86002507/une-camera-par-62-metre-de-fond
  7. Cousteau, J.Y. and Dumas, F. (1953) The Silent World, New York.
  8. Das neue Universum. Forschung, Wissen (1964), 81.
  9. Dugan, J. (1960) Forscher und Taucher im Meer, Zurich.
  10. Dugan, J. (1963) ‘Portrait of Homo aquaticus’ New York Times Magazine, April 21, pp. 38, 56, 58, 63, 66.
  11. Dugan, J. (1967) ‘Man Invades the Sea’ in: James Dugan, Robert C. Cowen, Bill Barada, Luis Marden, and Richard M. Crum, eds., World Beneath the Sea. Washington, pp. 29-50.
  12. Frost, H. (1963) Under the Mediterranean. Marine Antiquities. London.
  13. Frost, H. (1990) ‘Obituary. Personal memories of Peter Throckmorton’, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration, 19, pp.181-182.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Gilpatric, G. (1934) ‘The Compleat Googler’, The Saturday Evening Post, October 6, pp. 10, 11, 68, 69.
  15. Grosvenor, G. H. (1967) ‘Foreword’, in: by Dugan, J., Cowen, R.C., Barada, B., Marden, L. and Crum, R.M. eds. World Beneath the Sea, Washington, p. 5.
  16. Hass, H. (1950) Unter Korallen und Haien. Abenteuer in der Karibischen See, Berlin.
  17. Hass, L.(1970) Ein Mädchen auf dem Meeresgrund, Vienna.
  18. Jong, E. de. (1968). ‘Fahrstuhl zum Meeresgrund’, Delphin, 1, pp. 7-9.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. London, J. (1913) The Cruise of the Snark, New York.
  20. Milne, T.F. (1920) Ein Taucherleben, Berlin.
  21. Rosenthal, H. (1969) ‘Nasse Philatelie. Die Unterwasserwelt auf Briefmarken’, Delphin, 1, p. 34
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Stelzner, H. (1931) Tauchertechnik. Handbuch für Taucher über den Bau und die Anwendung der Tauchergeräte aller Art. Lehrbuch für Taucheranwärter, Lübeck.
  23. Tailliez, P. (1954) Plongées sans câble. Paris.
  24. Thompson, R. E. 1966. Sealab I: A Personal Documentary Account. US Naval Submarine Medical Center, Submarine Base, Groton, Connecticut, Memorandum Report 66-9.
  25. Throckmorton, P. (1967) The Lost Ships. An Adventure in Undersea Archaeology. Boston.
  26. Throckmorton, P. (1987) ‘The Sea remembers. Shipwrecks and archaeology from Homer’s Greece to the rediscovery of the Titanic’, in: P. Trockmorton, ed., History from the sea. Shipwrecks and archaeology. From Homer’s Odyssey to the Titanic, London, pp. 6-28.
  27. Verne, J. (1871) Vingt mille lieues sous les mers. Paris.
  28. Secondary sources
    Adamowsky, N. (2017) Ozeanische Wunder. Entdeckung und Eroberung des Meeres in der Moderne. Paderborn.
  29. Adler, A. (2019) Neptune’s Laboratory. Fantasy, Fear, and Science at Sea. Cambridge.
  30. Alaimo, S. (2017) ‘The Anthropocene at Sea. Temporality, Paradox, Compression’, in: Heise, U. K., Christensen, J., and Niemann, M., eds., The Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanitie, London, pp. 153-162.
  31. Benson, K. H., Rozwadowski, H M., Keuren, D. K. van. (2004) ‘Introduction’, in: Rozwadowski, H.M. and van Keuren, D.K., eds., The Machine in Neptune’s Garden: Historical Perspectives on Technology and the Marine Environment, Sagamore Beach, pp. xiii-xxviii.
  32. Brant, C. (2021) ‘The Sentience of Sea Squirts’, in: Batzke, I., Espinoza Garrido, L. and Hess, L.M., eds. Life Writing in the Posthuman Anthropocene, London, pp. 123-156.
  33. Brauwer, M. De, Harvey, E.S., McIlwain, J.L., Hobbs, J.-P. A., Jompa, J., and Burton M. (2017) ‘The Economic Contribution of the Muck Dive Industry to Tourism in Southeast Asia’, Marine Policy, 83, pp. 92-99.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Brons, F. (2020a) ‘Die Fotografie und das Meer. Editorial’, Fotogeschichte, 40, pp. 3-6.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Brons, F. (2020b) ‘Medium unter Druck. Louis Boutans Unterwasserfotografie’, In Fotogeschichte, 40, pp. 19-32.
  36. Buzzacott, P. (2008) ‘Western Australian Dive Industry Growth and Survival, 1969-2005’, Journal of Ecotourism, 7, 2and3, pp. 221-229.
  37. Cohen, M. (2010) The Novel and the Sea. Princeton.
  38. Cohen, M. (2014) ‘Underwater Optics as Symbolic Form’, French Politics, Culture and Society, 32, 3, pp. 1-23.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Cohen, M. (2022) The Underwater Eye. How the Movie Camera Opened the Depths and Unleashed New Realms of Fantasy, Princeton: Princeton.
  40. Cronon, W. (1993) ‘The Uses of Environmental History’, Environmental History Review, 17, 3, pp. 1-22.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Cronon, W. (1996) ‘In Search of Nature’, in: Cronon, W., ed., Uncommon ground. Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, New York, pp. 23-28
  42. Crylen, J. C. (2018) ‘Living in a World Without Sun. Jacques Cousteau, Homo aquaticus, and the Dream of Dwelling Undersea’, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 58, 1, pp. 1-23.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Crylen, J. C. (2015) The Cinematic Aquarium. A History of Undersea Film. Iowa.
  44. Dolan, J. R. (2020) ‘The Origins of Oceanography in France: The scientific expeditions of the Travailleur and Talisman (1880-1883)’, Oceanography 33, 2, https://doi.org/ . [Crossref]
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Elias, A. (2020) ‘Williamson und die “Photosphere”’, Fotogeschichte, 40, pp. 43-50.
     [Google Scholar]
  46. Elkays, R. (2021) ‘Louis Boutan et la photographie sous-marine (1886-1900)’, Focales, 5, DOI: https://doi.org/ [Crossref]
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Esposito, J. (2023) ‘Oxygen Sense. Creating Embodied Knowledge to Promote Health Innovation in the Royal Air Force, 1939-45’, Technology and Culture, 64, 1, pp. 34-62.
     [Google Scholar]
  48. Fenner, A. (2023) ‘Das Antlitz dem Offenen zugewandt. Posthuman(istisch)e Weltenbildung in MEIN LEHRER, DER KRAKE’, Nach dem Film, May 11, 2023, https://nachdemfilm.de/issues/text/das-antlitz-dem-offenen-zugewandt.
  49. Finley, C. (2017) All the Boats on the Ocean. How Government Subsidies Led to Global Overfishing. Chicago.
  50. Forrest, M. J., Favoretto, F., Nisa, Z.A., Aburto-Oropeza, O. (2023) ‘Review article. A deeper dive into the blue economy: the role of the diving sector in conservation and sustainable development goals’, Sec. Marine Conservation and Sustainability, 10, n.p.
  51. Frost, F. J. (1968) ‘Scyllias. Diving in Antiquity’, Greece and Rome, 15, 2, pp. 180-185.
  52. Geistdoerfer, P. (2015) Histoire de l’océanographie. De la surface aux abysses. With a preface by Pascale Delecluse. Paris.
  53. Geppert, A. C. T. (2019) ‘Phantasie, Projekt, Produkt. Astrokultur und der Weltraum des 20. Jahrhunderts’, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 69, pp.19-25.
     [Google Scholar]
  54. Gierschner, N. (2013a) Meine illustrierte Chronologie der Tauchgeschichte. Bd. 1 Zeittafeln und Bilder: einige da und dort aufgelesene Zeitfragmente von Ereignissen in der Unterwasserwelt, Berlin.
  55. Gierschner, N. (2013b) Meine illustrierte Chronologie der Tauchgeschichte Bd. 2 Quellen- und Literaturverzeichnis, Berlin.
  56. Gierschner, N. (2014a) Meine illustrierte Chronologie der Tauchgeschichte. Bd. 3 Episoden und Berichte, Berlin.
  57. Gierschner, N. (2014b) Meine illustrierte Chronologie der Tauchgeschichte. Bd. 4 Holzkästen, Blechsärge und Hightech, Berlin.
  58. Gillis, J. R. (2011) ‘Filling the Blue Hole in Environmental History’, The Future of Environmental History: Needs and Opportunities, RCC Perspectives, 3, pp.16-18.
     [Google Scholar]
  59. Gillis, J. R. (2012) The Human Shore. Seacoasts in History. Chicago.
  60. Gjerde, K. Ø. and Ryggvik, H. (2009) Nordsjødykkerne. Stavanger.
  61. Hamblin, J. D. (2005) Oceanographers and the Cold War: Disciples of Marine Science, Seattle.
  62. Haraway, D. (2015) ‘Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin’, Environmental Humanities, 6, pp. 159-165.
     [Google Scholar]
  63. Heggie, V. (2019) Higher and Colder. A History of Extreme Physiology and Exploration, Chicago.
  64. Heidbrink, I. and MacCarthy, M., eds., (2013) Fisheries Management in a Historical Perspective, Hull.
  65. Heine, E.-C. (2021) ‘Forschen in einer extremen Umwelt’, N.T.M., 29, pp. 171-202.
     [Google Scholar]
  66. Hellwarth, B. (2012) Sealab. America’s Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor, New York.
  67. Helmreich, S. (2007) ‘An Anthropologist Under Water. Immersive Soundscapes, Submarine Cyborgs, and Transductive Ethnography’, American Ethnologist, 34, 4, pp. 621-641.
     [Google Scholar]
  68. Höhler, S. (2015) Spaceship Earth in the Environmental Age, 1960-1990. London.
  69. Jung, M. (1999) Das Handbuch zur Tauchgeschichte. Mit einem Vorwort von Hans Hass, Stuttgart.
  70. Kehrt, C and Torma, F. (2014) ‘Einführung. Lebensraum Meer. Globales Umweltwissen und Ressourcenfragen in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 40, pp. 313-332.
     [Google Scholar]
  71. Kisch, E. E. (1983) Der rasende Reporter. Mit einem Nachwort von Hans-Albert Walter, Cologne.
  72. Klewitz, A. von. (2013) Carl Chun, die Valdivia und die Entdeckung der Tiefsee. Berlin.
  73. Kroll, G. (2008) America’s Ocean Wilderness: A Cultural History of Twentieth-century Exploration, Lawrence.
  74. Langston, N. (2013) ‘Editor’s Note’, Environmental History, 18, 1, pp. 1-2.
     [Google Scholar]
  75. Latif, M. (2014) Das Ende der Ozeane. Warum wir ohne die Meere nicht überleben werden. Freiberg im Breisgau.
  76. Lettenewitsch, N. (2022) ‘Unter Wasser Atmen – “Fisch werden”. Filmische Fantasien und Technologien des Tauchens’, in: Lettenewitsch, N. and Waack, L. eds, Ein- und Ausströmungen, Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, pp. 123-146, https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839460184-010
  77. Lünen, A. von (2010) Under the Waves, above the Clouds. A History of the Pressure Suit. Darmstadt, http://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/2103/1/lunen_diss.pdf
  78. Madsen, A. (2015) Cousteau. An Unauthorized Biography. New York.
  79. Martínez, A. R. (2013) ‘A souvenir of undersea landscapes’. Underwater photography and the limits of photographic visibility, 1890-1910’, História Ciências Saúde-Manguinhos, 21, 3, pp. 1-18.
     [Google Scholar]
  80. Matsen, B. (2010) Jacques Cousteau. The Sea King. New York.
  81. McNeill, J.R. and Engelke, P. (2014) The Great Accaleration. An Environmental History of the Anthropocene since 1945. Cambridge.
  82. Mentz, S. (2024) An Introduction to the Blue Humanities. New York.
  83. Miller, J.W. and Koblick, I. G. (1984) Living and working in the sea, New York.
  84. Möser, K. (1992) ‘Tiefenerfahrung. Zur Geschichte der Tauchtechnik’, Technikgeschichte, 59, pp. 193-216.
     [Google Scholar]
  85. Möser, K. (2011) Grauzonen der Technikgeschichte. Karlsruhe.
  86. Musard, O., Fournier, J. and Marchand, J.-P. (2007) ‘Le proche espace sousmarin. Essai sur la notion de paysage’, L’Espace géographique, 36-2, pp. 168-185.
  87. Oppermann, S. (2023) Blue Humanities. Storied Waterscapes in the Anthropocene, Cambridge.
  88. Oreskes, N. (2021) Science on a Mission. How Military Funding shaped what we do and don’t know about the Oceans. Chicago.
  89. Phillips, J. L. (1998) The Bends, Compressed Air in the History of Science, Diving, and Engineering, New Haven.
  90. Pritchard, S. B., and Zimring, C. A. (2020) Technology and the Environment in History. Baltimore.
  91. Rozwadowski, H. M. (2005) Fathoming the Ocean. Cambridge.
  92. Rozwadowski, H. M. (2012) ‘Arthur C. Clarke and the Limitations of the Ocean as a Frontier’, Environmental History, 17, 3, pp. 578-602.
     [Google Scholar]
  93. Rozwadowski, H. M. (2013) ‘From Danger Zone to World of Wonder: The 1950s Transformation of the Ocean’s Depths’, Coriolos, 4, 1, pp. 1-20.
     [Google Scholar]
  94. Rozwadowski, H. M. (2014) ‘Oceans: Fusing the History of Science and Technology with Environmental History’, in: Cazaux Sackman, D. ed., A Companion to American Environmental History, Chichester, pp. 442-461.
  95. Rozwadowski, H. M. (2018) Vast Expanses. The History of the Oceans. London.
  96. Rozwadowski, H. M. (2020) ‘‘Bringing Humanity Full Circle Back into the Sea’. Homo aquaticus, Evolution, and the Ocean’, Environmental Humanities, 14, 1, pp. 1-28.
     [Google Scholar]
  97. Ruppenthal, J. (2018) Raubbau und Meerestechnik. Die Rede von der Unerschöpflichkeit der Meere, Stuttgart.
  98. Sparenberg, O. (2019). ‘A Historical Perspective on Deep-Sea Mining for Manganese Nodules, 1965-2019’, The Extractive Industries and Society, 6, 3, pp. 842-854.
     [Google Scholar]
  99. Sparenberg, O. (2015) ‘Mining for Manganese Nodules. The Deep Sea as a Contested Space’, in: Marta Grzechnik, M. and Hurskainen, H., eds., Beyond the Sea. Reviewing the Manifold Dimensions of Water as Barrier and Bridge, Cologne, pp. 149-164.
  100. Spiller, J. (2015) Frontiers for the American Century. Outer Space, Antarctica, and Cold War Nationalism, London.
  101. Squire, R. (2021) Undersea Geopolitics. Sealab, Science, and the Cold War, Lanham.
  102. Starosielski, N. (2012) ‘Beyond Fluidity: A Cultural History of Cinema Underwater’, in: Rust, S., Monani, S. and Cubitt, S. ed., Ecocinema Theory and Practice, New York, pp. 149–168.
  103. Torma, F. (2013) ‘Frontiers of Visibility. On Diving Mobility in Underwater Films (1920s to 1970s)’, Transfers, 3, 2, pp. 24-46.
     [Google Scholar]
  104. Torma, F. (2020) ‘Jenseits des “Blue Hole”. Zur Konsolidierung der Meere in der Geschichtswissenschaft’, N.T.M. 28, pp. 91-103.
     [Google Scholar]
  105. Trischler, H. and Fabienne W. (2023) ‘Provocations to Environmental History and History of Technology: The Anthropocene’, in: Bonan, G. and Occhi, K., eds., Environment and Infrastructure. Challenges, Knowledge and Innovation from the Early Modern Period to the Present, Berlin, pp. 15-38.
  106. Violet, B. (1993) Cousteau. Une biographie, Paris.
/content/journals/10.1484/J.JHES.5.149763
Loading
Introduction: History from Underneath the Surface: Diving and Submarine Environments since the Nineteenth Century
https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JHES.5.149763
/content/journals/10.1484/J.JHES.5.149763
/content/journals/10.1484/J.JHES.5.149763
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): blue humanities; diving; exploration history; history of diving; history of science; history of technology; history of the ocean

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field.
Please enter a valid email address.
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An error occurred.
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error:
Please enter a valid_number test
aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnJlcG9sc29ubGluZS5uZXQv