Islas Canarias – Early Diving

Introduction

The history of the Canary Islands is linked to the sea, it came by sea. This circumstance has generated an abundant and unknown archaeological historical heritage, as well as a tradition of oral sources from the maritime history of the Canary Islands, mainly seafarers, fishermen and divers, who have been transmitting and feeding the stories about the sea that circulate.

As with perhaps all other countries and regions of the World, the first contact between the Canary Islands inhabitants and their submerged cultural heritage was an extension of the old salvage industry, which already existed in Ancient Rome. This epic and romantic activity is vivid in our imagination, through the countless novels written about sunken treasure and sunken adventures, but its real history is far from done.

With a very narrow platform, which made most shipwrecks inaccessible to air diving, the Canary Islands have nonetheless a rich seafaring history and its relation with the sea is also expressed in the lives of its pioneer divers.

This section is dedicated to the stories of the first generation of divers and their activities underwater, published by Vicente Benítez Cabrera in the series Buzos, pecios, historias del Puerto de La Luz y Las Palmas.