A Life Underwater

Written by DIVE Magazine Thursday, 17 November 2011 15:34

A hidden ‘museum’ of dive gear and treasures salvaged during a veteran commercial diver’s long career and tucked away in a metal shipping container for decades has now been revealed as the subject of a new film. Ray – A Life Underwater is a documentary that explores 75-year-old diver Ray Ives’ vast collection of gold, silver, cannons, portholes and swords.
Veteran commercial diver Ives, of Plymouth, Devon, became the unlikely star of the 14-minute short by way of a chance conversation, as producer/director and former BBC journalist Amanda Bluglass explains. ‘Dylan Kalis, managing director of Yacht Haven Quay in Plymouth, told me about Ray’s collection, which he keeps in a metal container at the marina,’ says Amanda, an Associate Lecturer in Media Arts at the University Of Plymouth.
‘He has more than 15 dive helmets, which chart the course of dive technology over the last century. Ray is extraordinary. He even still dives in a hand-pumped 1900s Siebe Gorman diving suit with copper helmet.’
The collection, acquired over a period of half a century, features swords, propellers, cannonballs, 
small arms, bottles, diving suits, leather buckets and an assortment 
of recovered cargo. All Ray’s finds 
have been declared to the Receiver of Wreck and he’s happy to show visitors around – enquire at Yacht Haven 
Quay if you’re interested in seeing the collection for yourself.
A bronze cannon dating from 1746 found off South Africa, and restored 
by Ray after centuries on the sea bed was once loaned out for a funeral, although Ray was unaware of its proposed use. ‘They looked up the correct mixture for the charge and fired it four or five times,’ he says.
A throwback to a different era, septuagenarian Ray joined the Royal Marines at the age of 17, spending 12 years as a Green Beret and serving in Egypt, Malaysia and Borneo before commencing his diving career with the MoD at Devonport Dockyard.
‘I’d messed about in the water with kit in the Marines, only getting wet, really. But when I learned to dive I 
was hooked. It gets in your blood.’
Working primarily in salvage before going freelance in the early 1970s, the North Sea oil boom of the time saw Ray involved in repair work on rigs and pipelines at depths of up to 170m.
‘I was one of the first in England to do saturation diving,’ says Ray. ‘It changed completely the way divers worked at deep levels. Instead of being limited to sometimes only spending a few minutes working before you had to start decompressing, you could spend your whole shift down there.’
The financial rewards were great for saturation diving, but not without risk in the early days. ‘I wouldn’t say it was dangerous,’ says Ray. ‘You take risks all the time, every time you cross the road, for example, but the safety margins weren’t what they are today.
‘In the early 1970s, in the North Sea oil industry, a lot of money was being spent and the companies were in a hurry to recoup that money.’
Ray’s closest call came in 1975 while working in the Norwegian sector. ‘My partner was Matt Egan, an American. He was inside the bell monitoring everything and I went out.
‘I don’t know what happened but I was unconscious within minutes, I’m told. Topside told him not to go out after me because it was too dangerous. Luckily for me, he disobeyed them and got me. He resuscitated me and got me back to the surface – I don’t remember that either – and into a decompression chamber. I was there for 40 hours decompressing.
‘The doctor on shore told the ship I would either be all right – or a cabbage. Luckily I never had much 
of a brain to begin with!’
A month later Ives was back at work with no thought of compensation. ‘It was no bother. I was still alive, wasn’t I?’
Ray didn’t see his rescuer after the event as their career paths took them to opposite ends of the globe until Matt, now living in South Africa, chanced upon Ray online and the 
two men finally met and have since become firm friends.
While Ray’s more modest starring role had its premiere at the British Arts Show in October, it has since received more than 150,000 online hits.
Filmed entirely on high-definition SLR cameras in and around Plymouth Sound by Danny Cooke from Torquay, the film also features underwater photography by myself and has been submitted to Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival
There are also plans to put the collection on a firmer footing with a permanent installation at Yacht Haven Quay where Ray’s treasures can be displayed for all to see.
‘My life has been quite adventurous really – I’ve dived and worked all over the world, but to someone who’s never dived I couldn’t explain it really.
‘I suppose it’s like being on the moon, not that I’ve ever been to the moon – but it just reminds you of space.
‘But as long as I can climb in and climb out I’ll carry on doing it.’
• Yacht Havens Quay is offering DIVE readers the chance to win one of five DVDs of Ray – A Life Underwater by correctly answering the following question: What is the name of the 1900s diving gear used by Ray? 
Email your answers to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it DVDs are available from Yacht Haven Quay 
(tel: 01752 481192) for £10 plus £2 postage and packing
To watch the film online go to   www.rayalifeunderwater.co.uk.