Commercial Diving

Hard-Hat Diving - The Early Days

Ever since the fledgling salvage operations of men in barrels (16th Century) there have been divers selling their services commercially. By the 19th Century commercial salvage teams were firmly established in Western Europe and the USA. The post WW2 years saw an increase in the fuel resource requirements for industrialised and newly industrialised countries. Questing survey ships sent forth discovered vast supplies of natural gas and crude oil in the seas and oceans. By the late 1960s to 1970s most of these areas had drilling platforms and gas piplines running to the mainland. With the rise of the offshore platform came with it a great demand for dedicated teams of commercial divers to maintain and tend to the underwater machinery and platform supports etc.

Into the Modern Age of Commercial Diving

Through the 1970s and 1980s the commercial divers thrived on the rigs and many consider this to be the 'Golden Age' of Commercial Diving with even rookie divers earning small fortunes. Bank balances were high, oil and gas output was in abundance and you could almost hear the Boom Town Rats playin' it for the boys and summing up the success.


Then the 1990s arrived and things began to slow down. The Oil and Gas extraction amounts no longer reached the capacities of the 1970s and 80s (although in 1999 it did break the record). Amid fossil fuel depletion and environmentalist concerns, offshore platforms no longer saw the output they had once reached. This along with the use of ROVs in lieu of divers has meant commercial diving is no longer the job it once was.