Reg Vallintine’s life spans the pioneering first fifty years of Scuba diving. In the early years nearly every dive was into the unknown revealing the wonders of sea life and undiscovered ancient wrecks. Beginning alone in British waters with only an old sports shirt for protection, his story moves to the Mediterranean where he set up diving schools where none had existed before and uncovered one of the oldest wrecks in the world, dating from 700BC. These were the halcyon years of diving, a ‘golden age’ during which he explored the farthest Hebridean Islands for the first time and dived from the newly created island of Surtsey off the Icelandic coast. He met the pioneers of the sport, Hass and Cousteau, and his expeditions included the dramatic search for a missing X-craft midget submarine in Arctic waters and also the excavation of Henry VIII’s warship, Mary Rose, in the Solent. As Director of the British Sub Aqua Club, the governing body of the sport, he guided it through its fastest growing period of expansion worldwide. Reg Vallintine’s account of his life in diving is infused throughout with the excitement of underwater exploration and his fascination with islands and their people.