Interviewer(s): D. Austin. New Iberia, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I was referred to Bob Merriman by Tom Angel, who described Bob as the expert on saturation diving. Bob was still working for Global Industries at the time of the interview, and I met him at the company offices at the Port of Iberia. We spent a couple of hours talking in a conference room, and then Bob gave me a tour of the training facilities and chambers.

Bob joined the Navy in 1956 and spent 20 years as a Master Diver in the Navy. He was recruited from the Navy by J Ray McDermott and worked for the company as offshore diving supervisor until 1981. Then he went to work for Santa Fe Offshore Construction and remained in the same job through the company's merger with Global Industries. During his diving career, Bob was involved in the development of saturation diving, the modification of decompression tables, and development of gas reclamation systems.