What is a Diving Support Vessel?

A diving support vessel, as the name suggests is a vessel that is used for the objective of diving into oceans. Divers, who dive into the middle of the seas as a part of professional diving process, need proper diving support. This necessary support is provided by such a dive support vessel.

The concept of a diving support vessel came into existence four to five decades ago. From that time onwards, these ships have been extremely important to the field of commercial diving which forms a vital part of professional diving.

It has to be noted that professional diving means diving for the prospect of construction, repairing and maintenance of oil-rigs and other important offshore naval constructions. Such dive support ships are mainly used in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico since these are the areas from where crude oil is majorly excavated from subsea sources.

diving support vessel

Such support vessels are flat-based or flat-bottomed because it makes the diving part easy for the divers. Additionally it has to be noted that such ships are equipped with the Dynamic Positioning System in order to help the vessel used for diving support stay steady on the water. In the absence of the Dynamic Positioning System, what could happen is that the ship could move away from the intended diving spot which would cause complications to the diver.

Another important feature in vessels that enable diving support is the saturation diving system. The saturation diving system enforces the presence of combination of certain important gases like helium and oxygen for the diver. Without proper saturation diving system, the diver has to go very deep into the oceanic water, which could cause complications like lack of air leading to suffocation.

In the five decades of their existence, the demand for diving support vessels has increased considerably. As mentioned above, they have been a vital support system to the oil drilling industry but this relevance and importance has gone up even more in today’s times. This is because, in contemporary times, offshore oil drilling has become the major source for oil supply to the whole world. And since the machinery utilised for offshore oil drilling purposes require continuous maintenance, asking trained men to take care of the necessary maintenance work is the best possible solution.

Diving Support Vessel
Credits: boskalis.com

To state it in simple terms, a diving support vessel can be termed as a helper who helps trained professionals to take care of the maintenance of the technological developments. Two of the famous diving support vessels are the Uncle John which was used extensively in the 80s and the Toisa Pegasus which is used in large amounts in today’s times.There are some technological discoveries that have really helped the world to be a better place to live in.

Aeroplanes, electricity and telephones are few such developments. When it comes to the oil drilling industry, a diving support vessel can be regarded as highly as the inventions mentioned above. A vessel which offers diving support so that accidents and mishaps may be avoided and prevented completely is something that needs to be appreciated. As a marine support system, a dive support vessel stands completely unique and alone.

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One Comment

  1. support vessels are flat-based or flat-bottomed because it makes the diving part easy for the divers. How?

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