h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: H.M.S. Diamond Rock - A3662769
Author: Phred - Go bind your sons to exile - U1293358

Golly I feel like a large Sea Otter tonight...Here's another just playful submission that fits nowhere.

- Phred

Is a middle finger raised really the sign for low air, or were you just saying good luck, I'm getting the hell out of here to the others?
My SCUBA experience is limited to a pool. But I do know what SCUBA stands for, and that's enough for me if I'm ever on Jeopardy!

The last paragraph completes it rather well, I think

Out of Air signals.

American: Bring your right hand to your throat and make a horizontal throat cutting motion

Martinique: Thump on your chest with your right hand.

Practical response: Grab and retain and spare regulator in sight or, failing that, begin an emergency swimming ascent.

I always thought the world of diving would be sane, and well regulated. I don't why. Perhaps it's the slow motion of it that makes it look so careful.

I'm left with an enjoyable number of ?!s: The Brits registered a rock as a warship?! Not permitted to surface?! Permission to breath?! Unanticipated strong currents?!

Cheers, Phred, you're opening up a new world with these diving stories. I've never done more than float on the surface with a snorkel. Saw some cool fish and coral though, in the Red Sea. A box fish, (or whatever they're called, looked like a box), and a ray... didn't stop long to look at that, and all sorts of gloriously coloured fish, and an enormous shoal of small silvery ones that changed shade as they changed angle as you swam through them. It would be good to do that again.

Yes. I found an admiralty site that registers the Diamond Rock as an one 18th century frigate...regarding the Martinique diving rules...they were as puzzling to me then as they must be to you now....but I'm not a Francophobe...I love them. They are so very friendly and helpful..and what food they cook....but they are so peculiar at times like this.

I hope to see the Red Sea some day...you're very fortunate to have experienced it.

Ras Muhammad - when all there was was a youth hostel, a few army recreation holiday flats and a warehouse of a supermarket.

And lots of barbed wire, tank tracks, and holes in the ground on the walk to the, well I won't call it a beach, because it was gritty brown crumbled coral.

An 18th century frigate - that's even weirder. I shall have to google to find out why. Liked your green granite cabbage description.

http://www.axfordsabode.org.uk/pdf-docs/hood02.pdf

Sorry it was a "sloop" not a frigate...seems like I remember the 4th "Hood" from WWII history...a rude surprise about air power, I think.

Oh..I was wrong http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-fornv/uk/uksh-h/hood3.htm about the Hood...I was thinking about the loss near Singapore of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse http://www.microworks.net/pacific/personal/pow_repulse.htm

Did you have that photo of the rolls there before? If so I didn't open the link. Way ! Though it belongs on the Rolls Royce entry I think. used to be able to put photos like that into Post articles on site. If they get up to full steam again, if would good to see the image as you read the article.

Never mind odd-French diving rules - isn't typically odd-English to need to declare a rock to be a warship in order to use it for defence? The navy being territorial perhaps . There's a bit on one of the web sites that implies the rock gets a 12 gun salute from passing warships. I'm sure the resident snakes and birdlife appreciate the recognition.


That first link won't open on my pc. It's given up on Adobe Acrobat - don't know why.

Not sure of the connection with the other two links - other than all being warships, but that last one's quite a read.

Here is the connection I was making:

1. Admiral Hood commissioned the Diamond Rock as a sloop

2. Wasn't the Hood the 4th ship named after him and didn't the Japanese sink it with air power?

3. No, the Hood was sunk by the Bismark

4. The Repulse and Prince of Wales were sunk by the Japanese.

It was late and I had way too much savignon blanc....

Both the French and English have odd ways at times...about the wrong photo in the article... thanks

Ah, that would make a good quiz question.

How do you get from a large green cabbage to the Prince of Wales in three steps?

Photo fixed.

New photo checked out.

Wow. I'd imagined something wider, for some reason.

That would be amazing to see. You took that?

WAZ,

No, I stole the picture, but it is the entrance to the Diamond Rock cavern. Let me go back to my website and credit the photographer and link to his site...it's the right thing to do.

The Diamond Rock cavern is generally shaped like an acute triangle with the apex only about 15 degrees, the floor is about ten feet across and the walls generally are about 30-40 feet high. Prolific sea fans and corals make the cavern itself beautiful and interesting.

A cavern is generally defined in the diving world as an enclosed space where you can always see at least a little daylight no matter how far in you go. A cave, by contrast, allows a diver to go deep enough to encounter complete darkness on sunny days with good water visibility conditions. There is a cavern in Florida, spring-fed, where you can go in 300 feet, turn off your flashlight and still see the entrance glow. I don't do caves and have no interest in becoming cave-qualified.

Cave divers are a strange bunch. They lay down line to find their way out, carry three lights and are trained to begin their exits after using 1/3 of their air. In spite of that a number of divers drown in Florida caves every year...one young man took his last minutes to scratch "love you mom & dad" on his tanks...what a waste.

I get a little antsy even in caverns because you can't just go straight up in an emergency swimming ascent when things go wrong...in this case my entire dive party left me behind in a frenzy of panicky swimming activity and they all ran out of air in the cavern and then attached themselves to the "dive leader" who had two tanks. Because I pulled myself along the floor in addition to gently kicking, I emerged later with precious little air to spare and nowhere to go but up. It was my favorite dive out of the maybe 1500 I've done since 1963.

-Phred

Ah, I wasn't checking, truly. It was a 'Wow, you saw it like that?' kind of a question.

My choice would be always to see the daylight. I don't know why but I picture this cavern with sand on the floor. But it seems more logical it would be rocky. Is there sand?

The floor has some sand with coral and rock outcroppings that can be grabbed as a handhold..it's considered bad form to touch corals because it damages them...However, in this case it was either them or me and of course....

You could show generation 'X' a thing or two about extreme sports Phred. Sometimes they forget that they didn't invent the concept but instead are just continuing tradition.

It warms my heart to see that the spirit of the true adveturer is alive and well, and with all this free time on your hands soon to become a reality, what's next? There are always lake monsters that need chasing!

Spynxxx

The Japanese student Suzuki took some time off in 1974 to:
1. Find the abominable snowman.
2. See a panda
3. Look for 2nd. Lt. Hiro Onoda on Lubang

He found the Lieutenant, no word on the snowman or the panda.

I've been to Loch Ness. No joy.

Nope, Nessy is AWOL. I was thinking of something closer to home, Ogopogo perhaps or the creatures which thrive around the coast of British Columbia. It's not an if but a matter of when one of these mysterious creatures will be proved to exist. The evidence is to compelling to be otherwise.