The Underwater Centre, Fort William
The Underwater Centre in Fort William was originally set up by the British Government in 1975, in response to a need for greater safety and competency levels in the commercial diving industry. The location, on the shore of Loch Linnhe, was chosen as it is the ideal environment for subsea training. Loch Linnhe is a seawater loch, giving students experience of diving in open-water, tidal conditions, with varying levels of visibility.
Since the 1970s, the seabed around of Loch Linnhe has been developed significantly, with the addition of a simulated oil platform structure, several wrecks, pipeline, and the only subsea concrete inspection block in the world.
In addition to the area around the pier, which in itself has a wide range of depths and seabed terrains to dive on, from 4m up to 50m, The Underwater Centre also has a deep dive site only 1.5 miles from the pier site. This allows diving to depths of over 100m, using the Centre’s saturation dive barge.
When The Underwater Centre took over the site, there was a pier structure in place that had originally been built by the local aluminium factory. This was converted for purpose with the addition of dive stations, and buildings to house a decompression chamber. The Centre began ROV pilot technician training in the 1990s, and the additions of a Launch and Recovery System and ROV Control Cabins were made. The provision of ROV training added another element of realism to the subsea training provided, as ROVs and commercial divers work in tandem in the offshore industry, and this experience during training cannot be gained anywhere else.
The current owners took over the Centre in 2004 and since then significant investment has been made to the facilities, with the addition of pier classrooms, drying rooms, and upgrades to the existing dive stations and ROV cabins.
Mixed Gas Diver Training takes place on the Centre’s saturation dive barge, Talon. The Centre originally began saturation diver training in the 1980s and since then significant upgrades have been made to the system, such as a new barge and bell overhaul.
As well as diving from the pier dive stations, air training also takes place on both of the Centre’s two moon-pool barges, Red Baron and ADII. ADII operates a basket system and Red Baron has a decompression chamber on board, allowing for surface decompression dives, and a wet bell system, allowing divers to get the necessary training and certification needed to work offshore.
At the head of the pier, The Underwater Centre’s main complex houses accommodation, restaurant, classrooms and offices. In 2009, the ROV Engineering and Electronics workshop was opened, providing ROV students with a dedicated environment in which to get hands on with ROV systems. The workshop houses a work-class Scorpio ROV with two manipulator arms and an external control cabin to give students experience with a wider range of ROVs, as well as the inspection class ROVs that are used to fly in Loch Linnhe.
The Centre also has a 1.5M litre seawater tank, originally built in 2003 as an aquarium but soon converted to a more practical use by the current owners, on their takeover in 2004. The majority of diver and ROV training takes place in Loch Linnhe, and the tank is used at the beginning of the course and also for familiarisation dives for those thinking about commercial diving as a new career.
The tank and the various sites in Loch Linnhe also allow for the perfect environment for subsea technology trials and testing. Companies such as Rolls Royce, Nautronix, Subsea 7 and Fugro have all used the Centre’s facilities in recent years.
The Underwater Centre also has a sister school in Tasmania, look out for a future blog post on how the Tasmanian school was set up and developed.
View subsea footage of our vessels and facilities in the video below. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.