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PANAMA CITY, Fla. – U.S. Navy Capt. Charles “Black Bart”
Bartholomew's legacy is alive and well as witnessed June 15, 2015,
when his son, Cris, his wife and his four children toured the Home
of Military Diving in Panama City, Florida, during the Year of the
Military Diver.
Bartholomew was a 1961 graduate of the U.S.
Naval Academy and the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture. He
served as the Navy Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU) commanding
officer from 1977-1980 and later as the Director of Ocean
Engineering and Supervisor of Salvage (SUPSALV) in Washington, D.C.
He died during a dive in Panama City, Florida, in November 1990.
While Bartholomew served at NEDU, the family lived in Panama
City Beach, Florida, and Cris Bartholomew fondly remembers living in
officer housing, playing in the waters of St. Andrew Bay just steps
from his back door, and visiting his father at work. Today, Cris and
his family live in Elk Grove, California.
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Cris
Bartholomew, son of Capt. Charles “Black Bart” Bartholomew, U.S.
Navy, takes a photo of a board June 15, 2015, that features Navy
Experimental Diving Unit's (NEDU) deep dive records. One of the
featured dive records includes a 1,800 foot NEDU dive that happened
in 1979 when his father was the NEDU commanding officer. Capt.
Bartholomew served as the commanding officer from 1977-1980 and died
during a dive in 1990. Today, a former Navy supply ship turned
artificial reef called the “Black Bart” is visited annually by sport
divers off the coast of Panama City, Fla. (Photo by Katherine Mapp,
NSWC PCD Public Affairs)
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“I remember my Dad telling me we were going to have
people over and he would give me a gunny sack and tell me to
go fill it with oysters from the (St. Andrew) Bay. I
remember I was so excited about coming back to Panama City
on different orders so that we would have had a bigger,
better house right there and I wanted that specific room,”
he said, pointing to a neighboring officer's home that also
overlooked what is today the “new” Hathaway Bridge.
While visiting NEDU and the house he once lived in as a
child, Cris discovered how some parts of his childhood
remained the same, like NEDU where he was able to see his
father's legacy on a record breaking deep dive board that
still holds true today from 1979. Cris was able to share his
father's dive contributions with his children, “Black
Bart's” grandchildren. Cris' older son, Charles, was named
after his grandfather.
“I remember him telling me I
should come down here (to NEDU) because they were breaking a
world record and that it would be really neat to see,” said
Cris. “I'm glad I did.”
That was one of the record
setting deep dives set in 1979 when NEDU divers conducted a
dive to a simulated depth of 1,800 feet in the Ocean
Simulation Facility, or OSF. The OSF simulates ocean
conditions to a maximum pressure equivalent of 2,250 feet
seawater (fsw) at any salinity level. The chamber complex
consists of a 55,000-gallon wet chamber and five
interconnected dry living/working chambers totaling 3,300
cubic feet of space. Wet and dry chamber temperatures can be
set from 28 to 104 �F. Saturation dives can be performed for
more than 30 days of continuous exposure in the OSF.
Throughout Cris' family tour of the Naval Diving and
Salvage Training (NDSTC), NEDU, and the Naval Surface
Warfare Center (NSWC PCD), active duty and retired divers
reached out to shake Cris' hand and to tell him what his
father meant to them and the Navy diving community.
“What your dad did for us was amazing. You're royalty to
us,” said NEDU Command Master Chief Navy Diver Master Chief
Petty Officer (MDV/SG) Louis Deflice. “Your dad was the real
deal.”
According to NSWC PCD Diving and Life Support
Technical Program Manager Wes Hughson, dive systems, like
the Mk-3 light weight dive system, are used today in the
U.S. Navy because of Capt. Bartholomew's efforts.
“This is his legacy today,” said Hughson, pointing to the
Mk-29 semi-closed circuit surface supplied dive prototype,
affectionately referred to as “Eugene.” “Capt. Bartholomew
was the one who promoted the use of and pushed for the
development of lighter weight dive systems.”
At
NDSTC, Cris and his family saw dive systems used by his
father and learned that back in the mid-1970s, there were
multiple dive schools in the U.S. Navy – today there is only
NDSTC.
Capt. Bartholomew had extensive salvage
experience in Vietnam and also participated in salvage
projects to include the Challenger Space Shuttle, United
Airlines Flight 811, Air India and even in the U.S. Navy's
effort to support the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup effort.
“Man, we love him. His book “Mud, Muscle, and Miracles”
was awesome,” said retired U.S. Navy Diver 1st Class Daniel
Hilyard. “If he was alive, no doubt, he would've made
admiral.”
Non-military divers may also appreciate his
dive contributions when they visit Bay County and dive the
Black Bart artificial reef that was once a 180-foot supply
ship used for offshore diving operations. The reef today is
located approximately six miles off the coast of Panama
City, Florida and in 80 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico.
Sunk in July 16, 1993, the wreck was dedicated to the former
SUPSALV director who was also an avid sport diver – a
passion today shared by his son who, along with his wife,
Kim, dove the Black Bart during his June 2015 visit to
Panama City Beach, Florida.
By Jacqui Barker, NSWC PCD Public Affairs
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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