Studies on Saturation Diving in Poland and Practical Application of Their Findings. Part 2 C. Developing a Polish System of Saturation Diving in the 1980s and 1990s

This article is another in a series of articles on the research and the deployment of saturation diving technology in our country. This part discusses Polish specificities and achievements against the background of economic and historical context. It describes the creation of the base for saturation diving in the times of economic hardship in our country. Over this period, the shipbuilding industry was driving saturation diving research as a basis for the construction of diving systems to be exported to secure the extraction of the resources from the sea shelf. This paper describes the efforts of the animators and protagonists of underwater research in our country, whose work is continued to this day. In its second part the author shows how the Polish system of saturation diving was created. The article also considers the technical and organisational conditions in which the first saturation dives took place and the history of the development of the Polish decompression method for saturation diving. A key role in this difficult task was played by the creation of a base for this industry and research potential, assisted by the relevant state agencies, dedicated for the defence sector. A multiannual National Research and Development Plan (Polish abbr. CPBR) was set up with objectives 9.2 and 9.5 focused on medical and technical research resulting in the development of a diving system with its organisational framework, medical safety solutions, and reliable technology. The outcomes of this programme are still being implemented today. Despite advances in the medical and technical fields as well as organisation, the problems of saturation diving are still pertinent because, regardless of its complexity and high cost, this is the most efficient diving format that allows for very deep diving operations, currently up to 400-500m.