Interviewer(s): D. Austin. Scottsdale, AZ

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I was referred to André Galerne by Jim Doré, the president of the Association for Diving Contractors. André is a former president of ADC and has been on the board of the organization for much of the past 25 years. Jim called André for me from his office in New Iberia, and André was very friendly and agreed to talk with me. André lived in New York for almost 40 years and had moved to Scottsdale in the past few years. When I learned he was in Arizona, I suggested that I could come visit with him some time. André was very amenable to the idea but told me it would be better to wait until the end of November because he was going to Liverpool to speak at the annual meeting of the Historical Diving Society. I waited until December and called to set up an appointment. André remembered our conversation and said he was happy for me to come by. He gave me specific directions to his very large house in Scottsdale. A very old French fountain with a metalwork sign, "les fontaines" let me know I was at the right house. André is an amiable character with a fascinating history. This interview cannot do justice to his life and experiences; we focused mostly on the origins and function of the ADC and his perceptions of the Gulf of Mexico.

André is 75 years old and arrived in the United States from France, via Canada in 1962. He worked with Jacques Cousteau on Calypso and then found he was more interested in working underwater and started his first diving company in 1952. He started the International Underwater Contractors in New York in 1962. He did not get into offshore work until around 1970 when things got serious in the Gulf of Mexico. He became involved with ADC in 1976 and president around 1980. ADC was formed by a group of five diving companies who were operating in the Gulf and decided to fight unionization. Their goal was to establish standards so that the government would not start imposing regulations on the diving companies. Andre's specialty was in mixing gas for deep diving. He worked as a consultant for NASA on the Gemini and Apollo space programs. André's company was unionized because it was from New York, and he did not do too many jobs in the Gulf because the divers received such low pay and worked under dangerous conditions. André argued that one of the main reasons he joined ADC was because there were so many accidents in the Gulf that it was affecting everyone's reputation and insurance rates.