E. R. Cross Award

The Board of Directors are pleased to announce that long-time HDS member Chris Swann is the recipient of the 2012 HDS E.R. Cross Award. In announcing the award the Board noted Swann’s low-profile volunteer service to the Society in the fields of publications and historical research.

A native of England, Chris came to the United States to study at the Brooks Institute of Photography. In 1965 he produced a film on the diving bell Purisima, and went on to work in the offshore oil industry in the North Sea, Southeast Asia, and other areas of the world. Among his many accomplishments are two 1,000 foot chamber dives at the Duke University Medical Center, underwater archaeological work in the Mediterranean, and serving on the crew of the Johnson Sea Link I submersible.

Chris is perhaps best known as the author of The History of Oilfield Diving: An Industrial Adventure. This monumental study is now recognized as the standard reference in the field both within the industry and among interested outsiders. Chris brought the same detail-oriented skills he uses in photography to his writing, and the result was a well researched, scholarly history.

Chris has been the speaker at past HDS conferences [was a speaker at the 2008 HDS conference] and has had articles and photographs published in a wide variety of publications in the US, Britain, Germany and France. He has done a great deal over the years to support the HDS and preserve the history of diving. The HDS is pleased to recognize Chris’s service with the HDS E.R. Cross Award.

About The Historical Diving Society E. R Cross Award