Saturation Diving

Wed, Apr 9th 2025 at 12:40 pm - 2:00 pm

Rick Moser

Guest speaker was Richard (Rick) Moser who spoke about his life and work as a saturation diver. Saturation diving allows divers to stay at great depths safely for longer, only requiring them to undergo depressurisation once. Rick described how divers sometimes work in water at depths of 186 meters (the equivalent of two Big Bens standing on top of one another). His early working life was with the US Navy scuba-diving in Eritrea (at that time Ethiopia) before he volunteered for Dive School; he then worked on an under-water construction team for over two years before leaving the Navy and training in New York on a commercial diving Mixed Gas Course. Highlights of his career include working on the Lusitania, hyperbaric welding, and welding at his greatest depth of 700 feet. It is dangerous work (he got his first job following the death of a diver) where up to six men live in a pressurised 2.5 x 7 metres chamber for up to 28 days, breathing heliox, a mixture of helium and oxygen. Divers can earn around £2,000 per day. The vessel supporting them will have a crew of around 80 people. Rick showed videos of the pressurised chamber. Wake-up is at a 4am for breakfast (food and newspapers are passed through secure pressurised locks from outside) and to prepare for ‘blow-down’ when pressure is increased to be the same as at the bottom of the sea. The chamber then takes 75-80 minutes to get to the sea bed when work can begin. There is a life boat at hyperbaric pressure which can keep the men alive for 72 hours. Comically, as the men breathe the heliox their voices rise in pitch. An off-shoot of the use of heiiox is in hyperbaric medicine which helps patients with breathing difficulties. This was a fascinating insight into the work of the deep-sea diver. Hamish Tait gave the vote of thanks.