David Wilson
Contributor
Heading south now from Scandinavia, we cross the Alps to Italy (administrative map above), bathed by the Mediterranean Sea, which the Romans called "mare nostrum", Latin for "our sea", in ancient times.
I have decided to break down my review of this country's early history of basic diving equipment manufacturing into several threads as I did in the case of the United Kingdom, where I live in retirement. A single Italian thread covering every period manufacturer there risks becoming an excessively elongated affair, raising obstacles to the addition of new information whenever it comes to light.
I am starting with one of Italy's most famous diving equipment manufacturers, Cressi, headquartered in Genoa, capital of the Mediterranean province of Liguria in northern Italy with the French Riviera to the west, Piedmont to the north, Emilia-Romagna to the east and Tuscany to the south. According to the firm's website at 1930 -1940, Cressi is "the oldest scuba diving equipment company worldwide", founded by Egidio and Nanni Cressi, in 1938, when the two brothers began handcrafting the first masks and spearfishing guns.
For information about the early history of Cressi, I am indebted to Cressi, un leggenda italiana nel mondo • Ocean 4 Future [Cressi, an Italian world legend]. Here is a rough translation of the first few paragraphs:
Who has never worn a Cressi mask or fins? We probably all started with this equipment, which came into existence in Genoa, home of the diving industry. The best ideas do come into existence within a group of friends. So it was, before World War II broke out, that Egidio Cressi, bank clerk and passionate underwater fisherman, joined two other historical individuals, Duilio Marcante and Dario Gonzatti, and began experimenting with the first rudimentary tools for underwater hunting and selling them to a limited clientèle.
The Cressi brothers and Marcante knew each other and dived before the war, but it was immediately after the cessation of hostilities that they were able to bring their dream to fruition. They worked night and day in the first Cressi workshop in Quinto. It all began following a chance meeting between Duilio Marcante, who was a municipal police officer at the time, and Egidio Cressi, a bank employee, who was passionate about underwater fishing. This meeting when they exchanged anecdotes about underwater fishing turned into a collaboration between the two that would last a lifetime.
Together they launched a cottage industry constructing diving masks and guns. Marcante was reported to have made the springs necessary for future spring-loaded rifles on the lathe. During the war, the bank offered Egidio Cressi a transfer to another location, but he refused. The idea did not appeal to him because he would lose touch with the sea and with his underwater customer-friends. It seemed crazy, it was certainly not the best time to start a new business, but fortune favours the bold and the "Cressi Sub - Il Pescatore Subacqueo" [Cressi Sub: The Underwater Fisherman] company was founded in 1946 by Egidio and his brother Giovanni Battista, who was known as "Nanni".