Alberto Gianni
Alberto Gianni (26 April 1891 – 7 December 1930) was an Italian underwater diver and inventor. Early life and career. Gianni was born in Viareggio, Tuscany, Italy. He served as a soldier during the Italo-Turkish War and World War I, becoming a diver after seeing divers on warships. In 1911 he plugged a leak on the Italian battleship "Regina Elena" after it had collided with the "Saint-Bon" in stormy seas. In 1916 he suffered from decompression sickness after participating in a submarine recovery in La Spezia. Diving equipment. Gianni is best known for building a decompression chamber , which he called the "cassa disazotatrice", in 1916. Another of his major achievements was the "torretta butoscopica", (direct translation: exploration turret), a one-man atmospheric pressure underwater observation chamber deployed by a lifting cable from a ship, provided with a telephone, and supplied with breathing air from the surface, which he designed, built and tested. Recovery operations. Gianni gained international fame for his work as a diver. He worked on the case of the Spanish steamship "Cruz", sunk on Scoglio del Catalano (Catalan Cliff) on the west coast of Sardinia. Because the shipwreck seemed suspicious, British insurers sought divers able  to check it, but none accepted the job due to its technical difficulty. Gianni accepted on condition that he would receive twice the compensation offered because of the difficulty of the job. The request was accepted and Gianni accomplished his task, finding the intentional nature of the shipwreck. He then appeared in court in London to confirm the findings, earning recognition for himself and the superiority of Italian divers. Another famous case was the recovery in Lake Como of the Lariana company's boat "Lecco", sunk on the evening of 18 February 1927 in the port of Como. Gianni's  most widely known achievement was probably the discovery of the wreck of the SS "Egypt", sunk in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brest in Brittany, France, at a depth of about 120m and carrying a precious cargo of gold bullion and silver. Attempts to locate the ship and recover the treasure had been made by the most famous companies of the time. In the end Lloyd's of London commissioned the credible and organized SO.RI.MA. ("Society for Maritime Recovery") founded by Commendatore Giovanni Quaglia, who finally succeeded with the recovery ship "Artiglio" ("Talon"), on which Gianni worked  as chief diver and underwater operations manager. His exploits were described by journalist David Scott, who followed all the events of recoveries on behalf of the SO.RI.MA. company for "The Times" of London, living aboard its ships and writing numerous articles and two books. Death. After locating the SS "Egypt", due to bad weather and the inability to carry out its recovery, while waiting for suitable weather conditions, the SO.RI.MA. company got the job to carry out some recovery operations near the island of Belle Île, south of Brest, sending the ship "Artiglio" with Gianni as head of operations. Gianni  died on 7 December 1930 during the dismantling of the SS "Florence H.", sunk full of explosives and ammunition. The "Artiglio" was swept away, destroyed and sunk by the explosion. Two other famous divers, Alberto Bargellini and Aristide Franceschi, and nine other crew members perished with Gianni. The tragedy occurred at a time of great euphoria given the real possibility of recovering the valuable sunken treasure of the "Egypt". The gold of the "Egypt". The recovery of the "Egypt"'s treasure was then carried out by the SO.RI.MA. company outfitting a new ship, called the "Nuovo Artiglio", for the occasion . The operation achieved a resounding success at the international level since it was the first step in the world of deep-water recovery, something considered impossible at the time, carried out by Italian divers and which became possible thanks to the organization left by Gianni and the use of his inventions, especially the "torretta butoscopica". Congratulations were sent from all over the world, including from George V (King of the United Kingdom), Benito Mussolini, and then-communications minister Costanzo Ciano.