Robert SténuitFulfilling a quest fortreasure turned asalver into anarcheologist.

ILLUSTRATION: LINDA HESLOP

ENGLAND

BELGIUM

FRANCE

ITALY

SALVDR, ARCHEOLQGiST

Robert SténuitBy Sean Holland

Robert Sténuit was well on his way to becoming a lawyer

when he stumbled upon Harry Rieseberg's 600 Milliards

Sous les Mers. The fictional account of diving for treasure

so captured thé fancy of thé then 20-year-old student that

he abandoned his studies at thé Université Libre in Brussels

to pursue a diving career.

PHOTO: MARC JASINSKI

Belgium's virgin territoryImprovised gear andtraining allowed RobertSténuit and Marc Jasinskito explore sumps in theirnative Belgium.

More than 10,000 underwater hoursafter leaving thé university, Robert bas yetto regret his décision. Asked to name hisfavorite dive, thé 65-year-old treasuresalvor and underwater archeologist sayscoyly, "The next one, of course." The manwho helped pioneer deep-diving mixed-gas tables in thé U.S. Man in thé Sea pro-grarn and advanced knowledge of scienceand history with record-breaking dives isunimpressed with many of today's div-ing trends.

"Today's divers look like Christmastrees with their buoyancy compensators,octopus regulators and buzzing instru-ments. Change is not always progress. Theaqualung hasn't significantly changed inthé last 30 years, except now you canchoose thé color of thé tanks and yourfins are fluorescent. Only thé price has

changed. I do not dive with a BC, yet hèreI am. I use only one regulator and, yes, Ihâve only one steering wheel in my car."

Those who wanted to dive inventedtheir own gear when Robert began ex-ploring caves and sumps in Han sur Lessein thé Ardennes région of his native Bel-gium in 1952, a year before he foundRieseberg's book. "Time and again, youwould find your gallery ending in théwater. The only way to continue was todive." To push beyond thèse dead ends,Robert and his buddies borrowed wetsuitsand crafted homemade gear. No trainingwas available then, so they learned théchallenges of exploring overhcad envi-ronments as they went along. Somehowthey survived thé foolhardy risks andlived to tell of newfound passages. "Thewalls were completely white — like vir-

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THE INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL DIVINE MAGAZINE

Diving History

John LethbridgeIn thé years fol-lowing thé sink-ing of thé Slotter Hooge.Lethbridge madesuccessful sal-vage effortsworking in his"diving barrel." Inthis illustrationhe is being low-ered at thé site.

Not ail research takes place in dusty library

stacks. A fascination with diving history has led Robert

to build and dive working replica's of historical diving

gear such as John Lethbridge's "diving barrel."

"l'm a very keen diver with a passion for history.

Some golfers like to collect old clubs and balls. Build-

ing this seemed iike thé obvious thing to do," says

Robert. The wooden cylinder allowed dives to 60 feet

/ 18 meters for 34 minutes before it was pulled to thé

surface. It was fitted with a glass porthole; two arm-

holes with leather cuffs allowed Lethbridge to gather

thé treasure.

On another occasion, he rebuilt and dived with thé

only remaining original demand regulator aqualung,

invented in thé 1860s in France by Benoît Rouquay-

rol and Auguste Denayrouze. The first users of thé

"Réservoir-Régulateur" wore no mask. Other such ap-

paratuses in thé late 1860s, featured a larger air tank

and no surface-supply hose. Their pressure was lim-

ited to 30 or 40 bars / 441 or 558 pounds per square

inch. Thèse were in fact thé first scubas. Over 5,000

such units were built and sold from 1867 to well after

World War I and used primarily by navies and public

wreck divers. •

After rebuilding an original 1 867 Rouquayrol-Denayrouze aqualung, Robert goes for a test dive. The first users wore no mask.

Robert takes a dip in hisreplica of thé "divingmachine" JohnLethbridge invented inthé early 1 7OOs andused to satvage silverfrom thé wreck of théSlot ter Hooge.

PHOTOS OOURTESY OF ROBERT STÉNUIT

THE INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL DIVING MAGAZINE IMMERSED, SPRING 1999

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gin white marble. I feltproud to be an explorerin my native Belgium.

Belgium is such a small and crowdedcountry that to discover virgin territoryin Belgium is quite a feat."

R obert continues to cave dive, but it'staken aback seat to thé allure of théopen sea since he found Riesberg's

book in a small shop in thé Galerie de laReine in Brussels. "I knew it was totalnonsense and didn't believe a word butit hooked me. I should hâve waited twomore years to finish my degree. But then,I thought I was wasting my time sincesomeone else might get to 'my wrecks.'It was a silly thing." Robert's parentswere displeased. "My father dutifullywarned me of thé pitfalls and tried topersuade me out of it. But like any goodfather, he said, 'If this is what you reallywant to do, how can I help?'"

Armed with youthful optimism, an an-cient magnometer and a reluctant bless-ing from his parents, Robert set out onhis first treasure hunt in summer 1953 inVigo Bay in northwest Spain. On June12, 1702, a formation of English andDutch warships attacked a Spanish fleetladen with New World treasure. So manySpanish vessels sank that finding trea-sure seemed like a sure bel to Robert.But, he says, "we dragged thé mag-nometer underwater and found onlymodem wrecks." The iron wire télé-graphie cable to Portugal was another"wreck" he found that summer. "Often Iwould dive in pitch-black water, occa-sionally down to 280 feet [85 meters], onair, of course, to investigate somethingonly to find thé cable."

Vigo Bay did not yield so much as a sin-gle doubloon, but a chance meeting witha visiting American, Edwin A. Link, fur-thered his quest for treasure. The inven-tor of thé Link Traîner, thé flight simula-tor that was used to train pilots duringWorld War II, Link became an underwa-ter explorer and treasure hunter who wasthé driving force behind thé Man in théSea project (Immersed, Winter 1996). Manin thé Sea aimed to demonstrate thé fea-sibility of saturation diving. Now a com-mon practice, thé ability of a diver to stay

and work at depth until tissues are fullysaturated with nitrogen was just a theo-ry then. Robert left thé French commer-cial diving firm SOGETRAM to becamethé chief diver for Ed's Man in thé Seaprogram.

"The treasure hunterspends his own money orthé money of his privatehackers instead of thémoney of thé taxpayers.This is thé only practicalway to tell them apart"

And in 1962, Robert completed théworld's first saturation dive at sea, spend-ing 25 hours in a Link cylinder habitat at200 feet / 62 meters breathing a helium-oxygen mix off Villefranche-sur-Mer,France. "We showed that man can actu-ally live and work in thé sea," says Robert.The success of thé project led to supportfrom thé U.S. Navy. "It wanted thé capa-bility of working in deep water in a mili-tary context as well as rescuing lost subs."

Robert and Ed were partners in morethan advancing hyperbaric science. A lustfor treasure forged another bond betweenthé two men. In 1963, they set out to finda legendary treasure of World War II: sixiron ammunition boxes filled with goldand jewels "gathered" in North Africa byGestapo chief Heinrich Himmler's spécialtroops. Incorrectly named RommeFs trea-sure (after Field Marshall Erwin Rommel),thé boxes were reportedly sunk off Corsi-ca at thé war's end. Despite Ed's vast arrayof electronic détection equipment, trea-sure again eluded Robert.

Océan Systems Inc.'s purchase of théMan in thé Sea program in 1965 broughtan end to thé team. Ed left thé project, butRobert stayed on as a researcher, diving inhabitats and chambers to develop oxy-gen-helium décompression and satura-tion tables for extrême depth, whiledreaming of treasure. In 1966, he con-vinced Océan Systems that it needed anoffice in London, where he ended each

workday by heading straight to thé BritishMuséum. There he researched thé Girona,part of Spain 's seemingly invincible, 130-ship armada that sailed on July 22, 1588,to attackEngland, (Immersed, Fall 1996).The Girona was a galleass, a small ma-neuverable oar-driven warship, that hadgathered survivors, treasure and suppliesfrom four other Spanish vessels that wereeither sunk by thé English or went downin deadly gales off Ireland. On Oct. 26,1588, thé Girona met her démise in atierce storm off Giant's Causeway onnorthern Ireland's rocky coast. Only fiveof thé 130 men aboard survived. "I con-centrated on thé Girona because she con-tained ail that was valuable from five dif-férent ships," says Robert.

600 hours of research finally, paid off on June 27, 1967, when

t, joined by fellow BelgianMarc Jasinski, slipped into a small covecalled Port na Spaniagh ("Port of théSpaniards") by thé local Irish. Despitethé promising name, serious historiansplaced thé Girona wreck site miles away.They were wrong. Amid boulders below30 feet / 10 meters of icy, turbulent waterwere cannonballs, brass guns, silvercoins and even links of a gold chain.After 15 years of searching Robert final-ly found his treasure and discovered théfirst Armada shipwreck, too. "It feltgréât!" he says. "I asked Océan Systemsfor a six-month leave of absence, and Fmstill on it."

The pair could hâve made a fortuneselling their finds to thé highest bidder,but thé expérience raised Robert's aware-ness of thé value of preserving artifactsfor thé historical value. "It was uniqueand spécial. It didn't make sensé tospread it ail over thé world," says Robert."If it is in private hands, where will it beafter thé person dies? Sold off without itshackground or history or thrown away?One can become rich in many ways, butarcheology is ail about having fun, intel-lectual fun." Instead, thé treasure wasmade available to thé Ulster Muséum inBelfast and became one of thé jewels inits collection.

A backer of thc Girona projent, HenriDeLauze, a member of thé National Geo-

1 4 IMMERSED, SPRING 1999 THE INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL DIVING MAGAZINE

graphie Society and a founder of théFrench deep diving and engineering firniCompagne Maritimes d'Expertises , re-called Robert as "a satellite for my dreams.I was extremely busy with COMEX,which I had started a few years earlier,working 15-hour days. I work with a lot

The first saturation dive, adramatic record in 1962,involved 25 hours crampedin a habitat at 200 feet / 62meters. It showed thatmen could actually live andwork in thé sea.

of scientists, researchers and archeolo-gists, but no one has thé talent of Robert.And he is an honest guy. That's rare inthis kind of business. We found a lot ofthings but never had a gréât coup. But wehad fun anyway. "

The Girona legitimized Robert's life-long goal of finding treasure and markedhis metamorphosis from youthful adven-turer to mature marine archeologist. In1968, he formed thé Groupe de RechercheArchéologique Sous-Marin Post-Médié-vale, or Group for Underwater Post-Mé-diéval Archaeological Research. GRASP,as thé privately funded organization cameto be known, studies wrecks lost duringEurope's overseas expansion between thé16th and 19th centuries. It has excavated15 vessels, ranging from thé Wendela, aDanish frigate that sank near Scotland'sShetland Islands in 173 7, to thé Mei Kong,a French steamer carrying 12th- and 13th-century Cham sculptures that was lost offSomalia in 1877. GRASP's discoverieshâve been documented in 15 books andnumerous académie papers, articles andtélévision documentaries.

Robert strongly advises treasurehunters to do their homeworkbefore start-ing their expéditions. "More expéditionshâve been made looking for treasure orships that never existed than for realones," he says. A little research can save

Man in thé Sea programAs chief diver for inthé Man in thé Seaprogram, Robert com-pleted thé world's firstsaturation dive at sea.Pictured left is thé Linkcylinder being loweredfor thé dive withRobert, above,cramped inside.

Below: A submergedportable inflatabledwelling that addedcomfort to later satu-ration diving experi-ments undergoesshallow water tests inEd Link's Man in théSea project.

THE INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL DIVINE MAGAZINE IMMERSED, SPRING 1999 1 5

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a lot of expéditioncosts. "A day in thé li-brary costs a fraction of

a day at sea, which can cost $5,000 a dayfor scuba opérations in shallow water to$50,000 a day or more in deep water andwith modem technology," he adds.Yetsome salvors purposely avoid research."Sometimes a researcher may kill thépromoter's dream or scheme by sayingthat a treasure was never aboard thé tar-geted ship, that it had been unloadedand transferred or that it had been re-covered already."

Research is one of Robert's strongpoints, according to Marc, a buddy on théGirona who went on to found thé Centrede Recherches Archéologiques Fluviales,southern Belgium's only underwaterarcheology organization. "So many diversare tough guys with small brains. That'snot thé case with Robert. Robert has a bril-liant mind. And he's got a gréât sensé ofhumor, too. It's always exciting to dis-cover things with him. It's tough under-water work with a bit of danger, but in-tellectually it's extremely satisfying."

A map copied from a silver tankard

AI wouldn't leave homewithout it"

"At Cocos Island thé

currents can be wild. I

surfaced aver 1DD yardi

away from thé pickup

Zodiac. Dne blast from

my Dive-Alert and they

saw me. It's simply

attached, effective and I

could be a life saver. I

wouldn't leave home

withnut it."!»BVj« 8 . m

Stan WatermanUnderwater cinematographer

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helped Robert pin point thé location ofthé elusive Slot ter Hooge, a Dutch EastIndiaman that sank near Portugal'sMadeira Islands. The tankard belongedto John Lethbridge, an 18th-centurydiver from Devon, England, who actual-ly salvaged most of thé Slot ter Hooge'sgold, silver bars and coins. The ship sankin 1724 during a fierce storm with a lossof 221 sailors and passengers. Robert be-came fascinated with Lethbridge's "div-ing barrel" and, with Henri's help, hebuilt a working replica of thé 1715 div-ing gear (see Recovering Diving Historyon page 11).

Between history and salvaging, Robertoften is besieged by two camps — arche-ologists and treasure hunters. "Acadé-mies are making it very difficult fortoday's salvors," he says. "They are try-ing to outlaw them through newUNESCO législation (see Wreck Diving,page 30). Is it that they are concernedabout their jobs?" he asks. "Treasurehunters hâve more of a spirit of enter-prise, they are often better funded, morecompétent, do more research and hâvemore advanced equipment. The acadé-mies look down on thé treasure huntersbecause their goal is profit through thésale of recovered artifacts. The treasurehunters note that thé academic's goal isprofit too, profit from thé papers andcommunications that are vital for theirstatus and job security," he points out."The treasure hunter spends his ownmoney or thé money of his private back-ers instead of thé money of thé taxpay-ers. This is thé only practical way to tellthem apart," he adds.

Robert's daughters, Marie-Eve and On-dine, share his love of history. Both arepursuing archeological studies, albeit onland rather than at sea. "They are bothgood divers," says Robert. "Marie-Eveworked on several of my expéditions,doing archeological drawings and re-pairing broken pots until she decided tostudy Histoire de l'Art et Archéologie atthé Université Libre. So now we alsohâve a card-carrying académie in théfamily, and thé younger one has startedon that track too." •

Sean J. Holland is a member of thé British Soci-

ety of Underwater Photographers.