Sténuit had a passion for history. At the age of 20, after reading600 Milliards Sous les Mers byHarry Reiseberg, a work of fiction aboutshipwrecks and treasure diving, Sténuit left theFree University of Brussels, where he was studyingpolitical anddiplomatic science in preparation for a career as a lawyer.[1][9] In 1954, Sténuit began looking for the treasures of theSpanish fleet sunk in 1702 at theBattle of Vigo Bay by English and Dutch warships. He searched without success, finding only modern wrecks.[9][10][11]
Together with another underwater treasure hunter, the American John Potter, Sténuit worked for the Atlantic Salvage Company, Ltd. on the specially-equipped vesselDios Te Guarde for search and recovery of underwatertreasure, beginning another search for the wrecks of the 1702 Plate Fleet, which lasted two years.[7][12]
Robert Sténuit worked as a professional diver for the French company SOGETRAM (Société Générale de Travaux Maritimes et Fluviaux). Eventually, he left SOGETRAM to become the chief diver for Edwin Link's Man in Sea project.[9][13]
Sténuit died on 9 December 2024, at the age of 91.[2]
From 6–10 September 1962, Sténuit participated in Man in Sea, Edwin Link's first experiment with anunderwater habitat, which was performed with a submersible decompression chamber (SDC) atVillefranche-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean, at a depth of 200 feet (61 m).[4][7][9][12][14] While submerged in the cylinder, Sténuit breathed ahelium-oxygen mixture (Heliox). The experiment was conducted from Link'syacht, theSea Diver.[4][7][9][12] Sténuit remained on thesea floor for over 24 hours, becoming the world's first aquanaut.[4][5][6][7][12][14]
During this dive, amistral sank theReef Diver, theSea Diver's launch, which was carrying fifteen bottles ofhelium.[4][7][12] A mistral surge also caused the cylinder to float back to the surface, where Sténuit remained safe fromdecompression sickness because the cylinder was still pressurized. AU.S. Navy boat brought an additional supply of helium during the night of 7–8 September, allowing Sténuit to continue to be supplied with helium whiledecompressing.[4][7]
Edwin Link's second Man in Sea experiment was conducted in June–July 1964 in theBerry Islands (a chain in theBahamas) with Sténuit andJon Lindbergh, one of the sons ofCharles Lindbergh, who made the first solo nonstop flight across theAtlantic. Sténuit and Lindbergh stayed in the SPID habitat (Submersible, Portable, Inflatable Dwelling) for 49 hours underwater at a depth of 432 feet (132 m), breathing a helium-oxygen mixture.[4][7][14][15][16][17]Joseph B. MacInnis participated in this dive as alife support specialist.[4][7][16][17] At the end of the two divers' decompression, aSea Diver crew member and Sténuit's wife, Annie Sténuit, sustained minor injuries when the end of an air tank blew off. Sténuit, who had developed a case ofthe bends during decompression, still had some lingering symptoms afterwards in his shoulders and ankles, but these eventually dissipated.[18]
In 1965, the Man in Sea project was taken over by a new company,Ocean Systems Inc.[7][9][14] Link departed from the project. Still, Sténuit remained as a researcher, adviser and development engineer, conducting test dives indecompression chambers and underwater habitats and computing new helium-oxygendecompression tables for greater depths.[7][9] In 1966, Ocean Systems established an office in London with Sténuit in charge. His professional work at this time involved drilling on off-shoreoil and gas rigs in theNorth Sea, but in his spare time, he began researching the wreck of the SpanishgalleassGirona.[9][19]
Sténuit became involved withunderwater archeology and the search forshipwrecks, collaborating withHenri Delauze (president ofCOMEX).[9][20][21][22] In 1968, Sténuit created the "Groupe de Recherche Archéologique Sous-Marine Post-Médiévale" (Group for Underwater Post-Medieval Archaeological Research), or "GRASP". GRASP has managed the inventory of 17 merchant shipwrecks and a number of warships from the 16th century through the 19th century.[3][9]
Sténuit's most important underwater archaeological discoveries are:
Robert Sténuit is the author of several books on diving and underwater archeology, which have been translated into several languages. He remained an active seeker of underwater treasures' location and identification, especially in wrecks of ships that belonged to the variousEast India companies. He continued to direct GRASP alongside his daughter,archeologist Marie-Eve Sténuit.[3]
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^Stenuit, Robert with Jasinski, Marc (1966).Caves and the marvellous world beneath us. Trans. Harry Pearman. New York:A.S. Barnes and Company.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^abSténuit, Robert (1969). "Ireland's Rugged Coast Yields Priceless Relics of the Spanish Armada".National Geographic.135 (6). Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society:745–777.
^Treasures of the Armada (Sténuit), pp. 7, 170–171.
^abSténuit, Robert (1975). "The Treasure of Porto Santo".National Geographic.148 (2). Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society:260–275.
