A folding kayak is a direct descendant of the original Inuit kayak made of animal skins stretched over frames made from wood and bones. A modern folder has a collapsible frame made of some combination of wood, aluminium and plastic, and a skin made of a tough fabric with a waterproof coating. Many have integral air chambers inside the hull, making them virtually unsinkable.
Garden Island is a narrow island about 10 kilometres (6 mi) long and 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) wide, lying about 5 kilometres (3 mi) off the Western Australian coast, to which it is linked by an artificial causeway and bridge.
Operation Frankton was a commando raid on ships in the German occupied French port of Bordeaux in southwest France during World War II. The raid was carried out by a small unit of Royal Marines known as the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment (RMBPD), part of Combined Operations inserted by HMS Tuna captained by Lieutenant-Commander Dick Raikes who, earlier, had been awarded the DSO for operations while in command of the submarine HMS Seawolf (47S). (The RMBPD would later form the Special Boat Service.)
A submersible is an underwater vehicle which needs to be transported and supported by a larger watercraft or platform. This distinguishes submersibles from submarines, which are self-supporting and capable of prolonged independent operation at sea.
A diver propulsion vehicle (DPV), also known as an underwater propulsion vehicle, sea scooter, underwater scooter, or swimmer delivery vehicle (SDV) by armed forces, is an item of diving equipment used by scuba divers to increase range underwater. Range is restricted by the amount of breathing gas that can be carried, the rate at which that breathing gas is consumed, and the battery power of the DPV. Time limits imposed on the diver by decompression requirements may also limit safe range in practice. DPVs have recreational, scientific and military applications.
A midget submarine is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to six or nine, with little or no on-board living accommodation. They normally work with mother ships, from which they are launched and recovered and which provide living accommodation for the crew and support staff.
The SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV) is a crewed submersible and a type of swimmer delivery vehicle used to deliver United States Navy SEALs and their equipment for special operations missions. It is operated by SEAL Delivery Vehicle Teams.
Herbert George "Blondie" Hasler, was a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Marines. Soon after joining the Marines, he grew a splendid blonde moustache, from which he acquired his nickname ‘Blondie'. In December 1942, during the Second World War, Hasler led a small commando raid against Axis shipping in Bordeaux. He was responsible for many of the concepts which ultimately led to the post-war formation of the Special Boat Service. After the war he became a notable yachtsman, contributing especially to developments in single-handed sailing.
Trieste II(DSV-1) was the United States Navy's first bathyscaphe purchased from its Swiss designers, and the successor to Trieste.
Operation Jaywick was a special operation undertaken in World War II. In September 1943, 14 commandos and sailors from the Allied Z Special Unit raided Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour, sinking three ships and damaging three ships.
Z Special Unit was a joint Allied special forces unit formed during the Second World War to operate behind Japanese lines in South East Asia. Predominantly Australian, Z Special Unit was a specialist clandestine operation, direct action, long-range penetration, sabotage, and special reconnaissance unit that included British, Dutch, New Zealand, Timorese and Indonesian members, predominantly operating on Borneo and the islands of the former Dutch East Indies.
Operation Rimau was an attack on Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour, carried out by an Allied commando unit Z Special Unit, during World War II using Australian built Hoehn military MKIII folboats. It was a follow-up to the successful Operation Jaywick which had taken place in September 1943, and was again led by Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Lyon of the Gordon Highlanders, an infantry regiment of the British Army.
The Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus, was an early type of oxygen rebreather invented in 1910 by Sir Robert Davis, head of Siebe Gorman and Co. Ltd., inspired by the earlier Fleuss system, and adopted by the Royal Navy after further development by Davis in 1927. While intended primarily as an emergency escape apparatus for submarine crews, it was soon also used for diving, being a handy shallow water diving apparatus with a thirty-minute endurance, and as an industrial breathing set.
Lieutenant Colonel Ewen Southby-Tailyour, is a British author, sailor, and retired Royal Marine. He served for 32 years in the Royal Marines and, after retiring, he concentrated on his sailing and writing careers and has written a number of books on military history and the Royal Marines.
Johnson Sea Link was a type of deep-sea scientific research submersible built by Edwin Albert Link. Link built the first submersible, Johnson Sea Link I, in 1971 at the request of his friend Seward Johnson, founder of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. It was the successor to Link's previous submersible, Deep Diver, which had been determined to be unsafe for use at great depths or in extremely cold temperatures. Johnson Sea Link II was built in 1975.
A wet sub is a type of underwater vehicle, either a submarine or a submersible, that does not provide a dry environment for its occupants. It is also described as an underwater vehicle where occupants are exposed to ambient environment during operations. The watercraft is classified as medium-sized or small vessel. This type of submarine differs from other underwater personal transport devices by the fact that it has a hull around it and it is not a "bare bones" design.
The Johnson Sea Link accident was a June 1973 incident that claimed the lives of two divers. During a seemingly routine dive off Key West, the submersible Johnson Sea Link was trapped for over 24 hours in the wreckage of the destroyer USS Fred T. Berry, which had been sunk to create an artificial reef. Although the submersible was eventually recovered by the rescue vessel A.B. Wood II, two of the four occupants died of carbon dioxide poisoning: 31-year-old Edwin Clayton Link and 51-year-old diver Albert Dennison Stover. The submersible's pilot, Archibald "Jock" Menzies, and ichthyologist Robert Meek survived. Over the next two years, Edwin Link designed an unmanned Cabled Observation and Rescue Device (CORD) that could free a trapped submersible.
The rescue of Roger Mallinson and Roger Chapman occurred between 29 August and 1 September 1973 after their Vickers Oceanics small submersible Pisces III was trapped on the seabed at a depth of 1,575 feet (480 m), 150 miles (240 km) off Ireland in the Celtic Sea. The 76-hour multinational rescue effort resulted in the deepest successful submarine rescue in history.
Coronation Island, also known as Garlinju, is located off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. It encompasses an area of 3,817 hectares. It is located off Port Nelson in the Bonaparte Archipelago, as a part of the group of islands known as the Coronation Islands, which were named by Philip Parker King, the first European to visit the islands in 1820, after the anniversary of the coronation of George III, who had died in January of that year.
Operation Hornbill was a proposed commando operation by Australian forces during World War II. The operation was proposed by Ivan Lyon following the success of Operation Jaywick.
United Kingdom Special Operations Executive 
