Talk:Jack Sheppard (cave diver)

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[edit] Disputed

There is a conflict here with Wookey Hole Caves which claims : "In 1935, two Post Office engineers, Graham Balcombe and John Arthur "Jack" Sheppard penetrated 170 ft (52 m) into the cave, reaching "Chamber 7" using standard diving dress. The event was the first successful cave dive in Britain." Derek Andrews (talk) 11:26, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

You've got a sharp eye. Unfortunately I've lent out all my history of cave diving books (eg Martyn Farr's book) to be able to check it out. I don't think there is really a conflict; it's the same pair of guys trying out different sets of equipment in caves within 20 miles of each other in roughly the same year. I'm pretty sure that the Wookey Hole dive was using the old-fashioned brass helmet style diving equipment which is fed from the surface by a hose. I think the Swildon's dive used a self-contained oxygen rebreather apparatus. Depending on how you define it, one of them counts as the first, but since it involved the same guy in both instances, he remains the pioneer. For tourism purposes, Wookey Hole has an interest in claiming to be the first. But actually doing it self-contained is a whole different kettle of mud and probably represents the actual break-through.Goatchurch (talk) 23:13, 15 May 2008 (UTC)
It sounds like maybe there are two 'firsts', and both articles just need some rewording to qualify exactly what happened in each? I'll have a look in Balch's book and see if that is any more specific, otherwise I will leave it to the experts. Derek Andrews (talk) 23:31, 15 May 2008 (UTC)