In July 2013 the secretary of the Historical Diving society in England, Mike Fardell sent me an email:
Hello David
It is my pleasant duty, as Secretary of the Historical Diving Society, to inform you that the judging panel for the Frank Oschman Trophy has selected
you as the winner this year.
The trophy, a handsome cut crystal glass bearing the society’s name and logo, is named after an early member of the society. It is awarded annually to an individual, group or organisation in recognition of a significant contribution to the preservation, renovation and use of historical diving equipment and is held by the winner for one year.
The award is presented at the society’s annual dinner, which this year will take place at the Royal National Lifeboat Institution College, Poole, on Saturday 23rd November. You would be most welcome to receive the award in person if that is possible.
Please accept my personal congratulations for a well-deserved recognition of your work in the field of historical diving equipment and I look forward to hearing from you.
Mike Fardell
Secretary, the HDS
The same day I sent an email back to Mike to thank him and wrote to him that I felt honored, and promised that I would do my best to attend the meeting in England four months later. On friday 22nd Accompanied by my wife Hania, and our friends Hille van Dieren and Jaap Stenger we were on our way to the ferry in Calais. Rob Krul was unfortunately not able to join us at this trip even though I owe him ‘a lot’ as a partner in the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze ‘regulator’, and ‘Snout’ Projects, in fact I rather found the sources for the info we needed to build the actual replica’s then having built them. I asked Peter Wingett to mention this in an article about the conference and dinner when this is published. We combined the visit in Poole with a visit to the HDS Diving Museum in Gosport, and a visit to the Submarine museum, also in Gosport. We would like to thank the HDS for their great hospitality which we enjoyed during the event. Photographs: David L.Dekker unless marked with different source
The Historical Diving Society in England has a website: http://www.thehds.com/
