After serving in the US army as captain of the air sea rescue boat, with numerous heroics, he decided to turn his hobby into his vocation. Check out his honorary mention here On his first professional diving trip in 1947, he took five schoolteachers, one at a time, and charged them five dollars each. His first boat was a double-ender called the ‘Ark’. His trips left from near Flatts Bridge to a site near Green Bay in Harrington Sound. For a while he had a reef by Bailey’s Bay, and eventually claimed a reef by Stag Rocks just outside Shelly bay as his regular dive site. Using his 50 foot boat Carioca he showed Bermuda visitors the home of Helen the Angelfish, Theodore the Hog fish, George the Grunt and Homer the Octopus.
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- Pretend dive in Flatts inlet.
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- Bronson has hooked the helmet on the top of the ladder, then backed up for this posed shot.
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- The future parents of Chris and Greg Hartley, Bronson and Martica
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- ‘Crew’ Martica lowering helmet for Bronson. She has a sweater and the water is cold.
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- Pioneer Hartley helmet diver. Bronson also used a mirror to brighten inside the helmet.
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- Dive vessel the ‘Ark’ leaves from Bridge House with the Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo on the background
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- That may be treasure diver Teddy Tucker beside Bronson Hartley.
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- This young woman is wearing an older model of diving helmet with only one window.
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- Bronson attaching hose to early diving helmet.
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- Sure looks like a tin can!
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- The 16 footer, Megalops, is used as a tender to get to 1st commercial dive vesses, the Ark.
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- Reporter catches the underwater scoop
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- The “Ark”
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- Early helmet divers
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- Lowering a helmet into the water