With technology in diving constantly evolving, and the boundaries of what is possible continually being pushed, it is sometimes easy to forget those pioneers of diving who paved the way for so much of what we do now. Whether it was a woman determined to make it in an era when women didn’t dive, or the first cave explorer, we as divers have some truly remarkable ‘fin kicks’ to follow on from.
With a new generation of up-and-coming divers now on the scene, I think it is time we remember those too often unsung and forgotten heroes of diving. As I delved deeper into the stories of these pioneers, I came across so many amazing women who have done so much over the years and received so little recognition.
From the woman who led underwater excavations on the iconic Mary Rose shipwreck to the first female dive shop owner, here are some of my favorite women in diving.
Donna Tobias
At only five feet five inches (165 cm) tall and of slight build, Donna was hardly the archetypal Navy diver. In 1974, women were barred from attending U.S. Navy dive school, but Donna began the process of acquiring a waiver to overcome the gender restriction. In January 1975, she finally received permission, and after completing a grueling 10-week course, she became the Navy’s first female deep-sea diver. Over the years, she also took part in physiological research, helped test the Navy’s new MK 12 diving system and served as a submarine escape instructor. She was a trailblazer in what had, until that time, been a male-dominated profession.
Penelope ‘Mossy’ Powell
Wookey Hole in Somerset, England, is the site of the first cave dive in the UK, and one half of the duo that completed that pioneering immersion was Penelope Powell, or ‘Mossy’ as she was more commonly known. On 14 July, 1935, she and fellow cave diver Graham Balcombe, wearing the standard hard-hat suits of the day, dropped beneath the surface of the water in Chamber Three.
It is hard for us today to imagine what that first dive must have been like. Without the streamlined equipment we have today, she had to make do with bulky hard-hat gear, relying on an unwieldy umbilical to deliver gas while she walked along the bottom. She was one of a core group of cave explorers who helped establish the tradition of British caving and diving we see today.
Lotte Hass
Born in 1928, Lotte Hass was an Austrian diver and underwater filmmaker. While she is often remembered as the wife of famous underwater cameraman Hans Hass, Lotte was a powerhouse in her own right. At a time when it was believed women were barely capable of diving, and certainly not suited to take part in expeditions, she refused to conform. After initially being hired as Hans’ secretary, she secretly taught herself to dive and take underwater photographs, eventually convincing him to allow her on one of his trips.
She soon became a regular expedition member who could more than hold her own, both in front of the camera and behind it. She became the first woman to explore the coral reefs of the Red Sea. She helped open the door for women in diving and showed the world that the underwater world was not just for men.
Amelia Behrens-Furniss
Amelia Behrens-Furniss was nothing if not extraordinary. To her long list of achievements as an actress, wing-walker and stuntwoman during the 1920s must also be added her pioneering work in the field of hard-hat diving. Working for her father, she was taught to work as both a hard-hat and bell diver. She set several world depth records at the time and was known for being totally fearless.
Despite wearing equipment that often weighed more than 400 pounds (181 kg), she never let it hold her back. She was famous for completing a dive to 162 feet (49 meters) into a 24-inch (61-centimeter) pipe to retrieve tools that had been dropped. Today, her family sponsors a grant in her name for young women to begin training in hard-hat diving. Even now, she continues to contribute to the diving community.
Margaret Rule
The Mary Rose is without doubt one of the most famous ships in the world. As the flagship of King Henry VIII, she sank in 1545 just two miles (3.2 kilometers) outside Portsmouth Harbour, United Kingdom, during a battle with the French fleet.
Dr. Margaret Rule was a highly experienced land archaeologist when she was initially approached to join the team searching for the lost Mary Rose. Although the wreck had actually been found in 1836 by the Deane brothers, the true inventors of standard-dress diving equipment, its location was subsequently lost. From 1968, a team of volunteers searched for the wreck before eventually rediscovering it in 1971.
As a non-diver, Margaret was determined to play an active role in the excavations, so she learned to dive specifically for that purpose. She was instrumental in ensuring the Mary Rose was designated a protected wreck site. She went on to become the project director and was actively involved in the ship’s eventual recovery and conservation at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Read more about Margaret Rule and her involvement with the Mary Rose excavation in this article by Rosemary E Lunn.
Dottie Frazier
It’s no surprise that Dottie Frazier became the first female scuba diving instructor in the US in the early 1950s. She had spent her life in the water, learning to swim by age three, freediving with a mask by age 10 and becoming a proficient skin diver and spearfisher by her teens. Not content with just one ‘first,’ she went on to become the first female dive shop owner, when she opened her store, Penguin. She also started her own line of wetsuits and drysuits. Breaking barriers for women and refusing to bow down to the pressures of the day is what Dottie Frazier was all about.
Sue J. Trukken
Having entered the US Navy in 1978, Sue was determined to have her first assignment at sea. With that in mind, she ended up becoming the first female diving officer and the first female mixed-gas diver to graduate from Basic Diving and Salvage Officer Training in 1980. She later became the first woman to serve as a saturation diving officer at the Navy Experimental Diving Unit in 1983. Working her way up to Commander, she was regularly the only woman assigned to her command.
Amelia Earhart
My hero and inspiration for much of my life, Amelia Earhart is primarily known as an aviation pioneer and author of numerous books. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the first person to fly over both the Atlantic and Pacific. She also happened to be a deep-sea diver. She was famously photographed emerging from an exploratory dive off Block Island, Rhode Island, in 1929.
For anyone interested in travel, adventure and pushing boundaries, you can’t go wrong by looking up to and being inspired by this remarkable woman.
Inspired by These Pioneers of Diving?
Discover more inspiring women who have helped shape the dive industry in Five Dive Industry Leading Ladies on the Women Who Inspire Them. Or, begin your own diving adventure with PADI and become part of the next generation of divers pushing the sport forward.
This guest blog was originally written by PADI AmbassaDiver, Gemma Smith.
