Arthur C Clarke

 🌊🦈Sir Arthur C Clarke and the Ocean🌊🦈

(by, Dinethri Rashmi)

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, best known as one of the greatest science fiction writers all the time was also deeply connected with the ocean. He wrote an impressive collection of non-fiction books on space travel, communication technologies, underwater exploration, and future studies. As much as he loved space and space, he loved the ocean as well. He was a pioneer Undersea Explorer in the world. He was a fist generation diver that explored Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and the Indian Ocean. He used Aqua Lung, the First open circuit, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus for his exploring missions.

In 1956, he started his expeditions around Sri Lanka and other islands and seas with his friend Mike Wilson. It was recorded that they found and investigated more than 40 Shipwrecks and other historical underwater places. This interest in the ocean is the reason why he chosed Sri Lanka as his settled country in 1956. He started a company 'Underwater Safaris' with Sri Lankan diver Hector Ekanayake and pioneered dive training and underwater tourism in Sri Lanka.

He introduced that the weightlessness in space can be stimulated underwater and it became an important part of astronaut training. In 1958, Clarke and Wilson introduced the first underwater documentary film in Ceylon named 'Beneath the Seas of Ceylon'.

He was suffered from Post-Polio Syndrome from the mid-1980s and still, he continued his diving since he found it easier to move in water than on land. In 1992, at age 75, he did his last sea dive on a ship wreak 11km away from the coast of Colombo. Local divers still refer to this site as Clarke Wreck for honoring him.

“How inappropriate to

call this planet ‘Earth’

when it is clearly ‘Ocean’.”

- Arthur C Clarke

References: - http://arthurcclarke.org/

Photos by: - http://www.accimt.ac.lk/?page_id=821

https://profchandra.org/category/arthur-c-clarke/

https://arthurcclarke.org/site/

#incredibleoceans #ocuknowledgehub #marinescience #SirArthurCClarke🌊🦈