1720 Jacob Rowe

The late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw an increased interest in the business of diving, and a proliferation of new designs of equipment. In the first half of the eighteenth century, a number of divers used the ‘barrel’ type of apparatus to salvage goods and treasure from the bottom of the sea. One of these was Jacob Rowe, a man of many parts: sea captain, engineer, inventor, author, and diver, but it is as a diver that he is now remembered. He was a man of great drive and determination, achieving two remarkable feats of marine salvage, during an era when underwater salvage was just beginning in earnest.

Here, for the first time, is printed his treatise on diving, describing in detail how his apparatus was constructed and used. Not only is Rowe’s treatise the first known English monograph on diving, it is also one of only a handful of treatises on the subject, in any language, written during the eighteenth century. The publication of Rowe’s original manuscript, together with a recently researched account of his life and work, throws new light on this aspect of maritime history. 

In 2000 the Historical Diving Society published the book “A demonstration of the Diving Engine”. This book describes a part of the life of Jacob Rowe and shows in a fantastic way how people in this time worked on wrecks like the Vansittart, El Gran Grifon, Adelaar and many more. Please read this fantastic book about all his adventures! ISBN: 978-0-948065-39-2