Sir authur c clarke : His dive books

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Some one recently made 2 inappropriate posts to this series of posts -- perhaps the following will add a little knowledge about Sir Arthur and his early diving exploits and make your time visiting this thread worth while

"FROM Wikipedia:

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) FRAS,( Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society) Sri Lankabhimanya, (???)

16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008)

Clarke lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his death in 2008, having emigrated there when it was still called Ceylon, first in Unawatuna on the south coast, and then in Colombo.

The Sri Lankan government offered Clarke resident guest status in 1975.

He was an avid scuba diver and a member of the Underwater Explorers Club. In addition to writing, Clarke set up several diving-related ventures with his business partner Mike Wilson. In

1956, while scuba diving, Wilson and Clarke uncovered ruined masonry, architecture and idol images of the sunken original Koneswaram temple — including carved columns with flower insignias, and stones in the form of elephant heads — spread on the shallow surrounding seabed.

Other discoveries included Chola bronzes from the original shrine, and these discoveries were described in Clarke's 1957 book The Reefs of Taprobane. (my favorite of all of Sir Authur's diving books)

In 1961, while filming off Great Basses Reef, Wilson found a wreck and retrieved silver coins. Plans to dive on the wreck the following year were stopped when Clarke developed paralysis, ultimately diagnosed as polio.

A year later, Clarke observed the salvage from the shore and the surface. The ship, ultimately identified as belonging to the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, yielded fused bags of silver rupees, cannons, and other artefacts, carefully documented, became the basis for his book The Treasure of the Great Reef."

<<One can only guess how many great diving books he would have written if he had not contracted polio and remained focused on innerspace rather than migrating to outer space>>
SDM
 
Treasure of the Great Reef was one of the first diving related books I read and inspired me to start diving so remains my favorite. Have the entire selection other than for Indian Ocean Adventure. Been trying to get a copy with no luck. A friend of mine has a copy of the movie Ranmuthu Duwa described in Treasure of the Great Reef. Great to watch when you know the history associated with it. You can find a few clips on Youtube.

Clarke's diving company Underwater Safaris still exists and is run by his business partner Hector Ekanayake.

---------- Post added May 16th, 2013 at 12:58 PM ----------

Here is the underwater fight from the movie described in the book. Quality is poor though.

ran muthu duwa sinhala film 10 - [url]www.Sirisara.info - YouTube[/url]
 
Sir Arthur's books will often be difficult to find and when they are located can be expensive. Apparently the SciFi bibliophiles also collect his diving books.

It's pretty easy to find them as e-books.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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