yet unknown. Some estimates put the death toll at around 10,000 Mediterranean divers in the first 50 years of surface supplied diving. French Navy physician Alfred Le Roy de Mericourt reported that in 1867, the suppliers of the diving suits reported that out of 24 divers using 12 scaphandros, 10 died during the season. By 1868 the Italian doctor Alphonse Gul observed that three divers would share a suit, and of the thirty divers at Kalymnos, two died and two were paralysed that year. The improvement in fatality rate was ascribed to the reduced daily diving time resulting from sharing the suits. References External links – Blog, but has interesting images and some useful information Underwater work Commercial diving Kalymnos