Interview with Tony Wells, author of "Black man under the deep blue sea"

Tony Wells has gone from being the son of a broken family, to one who has overcome many challenges until he was able to become the only African-American commercial deep-sea diver working the demanding offshore oil fields in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. in the 1980s and 1990s. Along the way, he not only became an excellent deep-sea driver, but he also learned about humanity. “Black Man Under the Deep Blue Sea” is his autobiography, and today he is here to tell us more about his incredible journey.

Tyler: Welcome, Tony. I’m glad you can join me today. I understand that the big change in your life began when your family moved to Hawaii when you were fourteen years old. Could you tell us a bit about what your life was like before that move?

Tony: Before moving to Hawaii, I was happy with the laid-back lifestyle of a country boy where we spent most of our time fishing and hunting after school and during vacations. For me, there was no better way for a child to grow up during that time.

Tyler: What about the move to Hawaii that changed the direction of your future life?

Tony: Well, in Hawaii you are on an island surrounded by the deep blue ocean, so it seemed natural to me to be drawn to diving and surfing. As I’ve always been the adventurous type, it was easy for me to transform from exploring on land to exploring underwater. All of this came naturally to me.

Tyler: Did you start diving naturally?

Tony: Diving was my means of exploring and breathing underwater, so I dedicated myself to it like a fish!

Tyler: What did you find so nice?

Tony: It was like another world for me. A silent world that had unimaginable limitations and enthusiasm and much needed to explore.

Tyler: A lot of people go diving. Why did you decide to transform it into a deep sea diving career?

Tony: Actually, when I was diving in Hawaii, I never imagined that I would one day become a commercial deep sea diver working the demanding offshore oil fields abroad. Diving is a totally different world than commercial diving. When you go out diving, you are just enjoying yourself and having a good time, but when you work as a commercial diver, it is no longer fun in the least because you are actually working and most of the time. It’s time for you to be under stress and pressure from above (the staff at the top) to go there and do a specific job. You don’t have time to enjoy.

Tyler: What made you decide to become a deep sea diver? Have you ever dreamed of being something else?

Tony: When I was young we lived in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Indy 500 racetrack was a half mile from my house, so we could hear when the cars were practicing there. After my uncles took me there to watch training and racing, I knew that my destiny in life was to become a professional racing driver. Several years later, when my mother remarried to a military man, we moved to Hawaii, and I became friends with some guys who would race the oval dirt tracks and help them work on their cars, so I still planned to become into a racing driver someday. However, after I graduated from high school, my family moved from Hawaii to California and I started going to college part-time and working a full-time job. After a few years of doing this, I realized that I was bored and wanted to travel and do something more exciting for my job, so I decided to enroll in the professional commercial diving course at the Commercial Diving Center in Wilmington, CA.

Tyler: Deep sea diving has had its dangerous side at times. Could you tell us a little about those dangers and why, despite the dangers, you still considered it worthwhile?

Tony: Well, I guess it’s like any other profession. It has its dangers, but once you work underwater, you just don’t have time to think about all the things that could go wrong. The moment you start thinking about all of that, it’s the moment when you shouldn’t be a commercial diver anymore.

Tyler: I understand you were a diver for a lot of oil companies?

Tony: Yes, most of us were ‘self employed’, which means that we would work for any dive company that had a job or, if there were multiple simultaneous jobs, we would work for the company that paid the most.

Tyler: What exactly was the purpose of your job and how did you deal with the stress of demanding oil companies?

Tony: We did all the things that people do while working surface jobs. The only difference was that we were doing them underwater. We mainly did oilfield support type work, which involved working on oil rigs, pipe laying barges, crane barges, derrick barges and outside of large ships etc. The stress of demanding oil companies was just another part of our job. For the guys who weren’t up to spec or just couldn’t take it, then they would have been fired (fired) or just got up and quit that profession.

Tyler: You’ve also been on a treasure hunt. Will you tell us about those?

Tony: My most notable treasure hunt was when we were looking for the 500-year-old Portuguese ship called “Flor do Mar”, off the coast of North Sumatra. That was really exciting and lasted almost two years. On another occasion, the government of Pakistan hired me to find sunken smuggler’s gold off the coast of Pakistan and that was also quite interesting.

Tyler: How did you go from working for oil companies to hunting for treasures?

Tony: My roommate in Singapore knew some guys who were teaming up to search for a 500-year-old Portuguese ship that sank off the coast of North Sumatra, Indonesia, so he invited me to join them. At the time, he was more than happy to do something different and exciting in addition to the usual oil field work that he had been doing for the past several years.

Tyler: I understand that you were once illegally detained by a foreign government. Will you tell us a little about that event?

Tony: Well that was basically a case where we were in the wrong place at the wrong time plus some corruption and greed made up for a combination that no one would have wanted to be caught in at the time. That was on a small island in Indonesia where almost anything goes if circumstances are against you, as it was in our case.

Tyler: What kind of work were you doing at the time and why was the Indonesian government upset?

Tony: I did some good research on an English shipwreck that had sunk off a small island in 1789 that had lost ten chests of gold and silver coins, so a good friend and I wanted to go and take a general look at the area to see if the project was viable or not. Unfortunately, a few days earlier there were other guys in that general area who were using explosives to salvage a steel wreck, so when the Indonesian police saw us in that area, they assumed we were the ones who had been salvaging the steel wreckage. . So they took us in and detained us for questioning, but even when they realized that it was not us, they began to see dollar signs as a requirement to be released.

Tyler: Tony, how do you see your life? Do your stories sound like movie adventures? Did you ever wish for a quiet life?

Tony: I see my commercial diving life as a great adventure and when I look back I can honestly say that I am glad I lived it. I am also glad that I survived some of the many close situations that I experienced on various occasions. Now that I am older I like the quiet life, but in those days I enjoyed the excitement, the explorations and the adventures that I went through. Yes, in fact, I think my book would also make a great movie. Haha.

Tyler: Tony, what made you decide to write “Black Man Under the Deep Blue Sea”?

Tony: Many years ago I realized that it is very easy to forget things that I had done the week before, or even the day before sometimes, so for the last twenty years or more I have been keeping a journal because I like to remember everything. what happened. for me in my life. Not that I was planning to write my life story all the time, but when I began to remember and reread those wild and exciting adventures I had been through, I decided that maybe I should write my memoirs. I knew that if someone loves excitement, adventure, and humor, they will love reading my book.

Tyler: Why did you choose to stand out as a black man in the title?

Tony: I am African American, so choosing the title of my book was very easy for me. I wanted it to be self explanatory (Black Man) and also sound exciting enough to grab the reader’s attention (Under the Deep Blue Sea). I hope I have made it.

Tyler: Your book also talks about the things you have learned about life and people. What would you say is the “message” of “Black man under the deep blue sea”?

Tony: Basically what I’ve experienced during all my travels is that most people of different races around the world just want to be healthy, happy, and have love in their lives. My message is that no matter what race or gender you are, don’t let ignorance or jealous people put you off or tell you what you ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ do in life. Anything is possible, so if you want to do something, do your best and do it. If my book could inspire only one person in this world, I would be quite satisfied and happy to have written it.

Tyler: Tony, do you have plans to write more books?

Tony: “Black Man Under the Deep Blue Sea” is actually my second book in print. My first book is titled “Shipwrecks and Sunken Treasures in Southeast Asia” and came about as a result of research I obtained during our search for the 500-year-old Portuguese ship, “Flor do Mar”. After that, I wrote an e-book entitled “Cannon Journal-Compilation of Information on Asian and European Type Bronze Cannons (1500-1800)”. If you are a bronze cannon enthusiast, you will definitely love this book. Anyway, the answer to your question is a definite YES.

Tyler: Since you are no longer a deep sea diver, how do you fill your time now?

Tony: Right now I work full time for a company in St. Petersburg, Florida that makes the world’s only real-time 3D underwater sonar. That keeps me pretty busy. I’m also selling my motorcycle’s shifter pad online and planning more marketing so that I can hopefully increase sales and be able to do it full time one of these days.

Tyler: Thanks for joining me today, Tony. Before we go, will you tell our readers your website address and what additional information they can find there about your book?

Tony: It’s my pleasure, Tyler. My website is http://www.tonywells.net and I have more information about my story, some photos of my family, and also some tips for emerging writers and inventors. I am a part-time inventor, so there is a link to the invention of my motorcycle’s gear stick pad, Shiftcush. There is also a link to my bronze cannons website. Enjoy!

Tyler: Thanks, Tony. I wish you many more adventures.

Today, Tyler R. Tichelaar, Associate Editor of Reader Views, is excited to have Tony Wells here to discuss his new book “Black Man Under the Deep Blue Sea: Memoirs of a Black Commercial Diver in Southeast Asia.” . PublishAmerica (2007), ISBN 9781424174225.