I learned a tremendous amount about underwater salvage, surface supplied diving, diving physics and physiology, as well as hyperbaric chamber operations. We located the ship, lots of artifacts but not the ram. In 1985 the Secretary of the Navy ordered a team of us to locate and salvage the ram from the Virginia. The ram was broken off of the Virginia during that clash. The most interesting thing I participated in during my Naval service was the salvage of the CSS Cumberland which was rammed by the USS Virginia (AKA Merrimac) during the battle of Hampton Roads during the civil war. I am very proud of my service to our great country. I became qualified as a hyperbaric chamber operator/supervisor as well as a ship salvage diving officer for the United States Navy and was assigned to fleet operations. I attended Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI and the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center's diving officer course in Panama City Beach, FL. Missing the technical side of diving I joined the US Navy's Special Operations officer community. Diving 2-3 times daily and some days as many times as 4 dives daily. I moved to Grand Cayman in my early 20's and worked as a boat captain, scuba instructor and divemaster there for a total of about 5 years. Exploring, mapping and installing hundreds of feet of exploratory line in a virgin cave system is the pinnacle of any cave explorers' career. The Lost Sea had never before been explored by divers and we were all very proud to be the first explorers there in the underwater caves. I presented our findings at the annual meeting of NACD in 1976. We worked in conjunction with cave divers from the US Geological Survey and some good science was done there. We explored the underwater caves that extended off from the lake, this was a very intense experience for me. The "Lost Sea" is in the Guiness Book of World Records as being the largest underground lake in the world. I was lucky enough to dive with and be trained by both Tom Mount and Sheck Exley, and am honored to be listed in his book "Caverns Measureless to Man" as one of his many dive buddies.Īs a college student I was chairman of a diving committee that explored the "Lost Sea" for a period of 2 years. I loved the technical side of cave diving, and feel that the cave training was the best SCUBA training I ever received. There were no cavern, intro or apprentice courses in these days.
![diver jimmy diver jimmy](https://www.delcotimes.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2016/10/b8e119847b9660e622023c68abcf5321.jpg)
Diver jimmy full#
In 1973 I was certified as an NACD Cave diver and then in 1975 I attended an Instructor training course through the National Association for Cave Diving (NACD) and became full cave instructor #28.
![diver jimmy diver jimmy](https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/1*77Jfc6OK7FaJ3dWG3fmULA.jpeg)
At the age of 18 I attended a PADI Instructor training course and became certified as PADI Instructor #4612. I started diving at the age of 12 in Key West and got certified when I was 16.