A big character on the Florida diving scene, Captain Spencer Slate has seen many changes over the years. He talks to JOHN CHRISTOPHER FINE, who took the pictures
“Who’s Lloyd Bridges?” a young diver asked innocently.
Captain Spencer Slate took a huge enlarged photograph of the late star of Sea Hunt down from the wall of the office behind his dive-shop.
He looked oddly querulous for a moment, before realising that the 80-year-old, white-bearded Bridges in the picture had starred in the pioneering television series about diver Mike Nelson and his heroic exploits long before the diver who asked the question – or even the youthful instructor standing beside him – had been born.
“I got invited to Lloyd Bridges’ 80th birthday party,” Slate told the young divers admiring the photograph of him with Bridges. “I’m 77. I tell everybody. I like the fact that older people are still doing things,” he added, after explaining what Bridges had been known for.
Few call Slate by his given name. He has run Captain Slate’s Scuba Adventures in the Florida Keys for 47 years. He ran diving operations out of Key Largo for 33 years, and for the past 14 has continued to operate a full-service dive-shop, teaching facility and dive-boat out of Tavernier.
Towering figure
The photograph of Captain Slate beside Bridges testifies to his tall, rugged frame. At 6ft 3in Slate towers over Bridges, and over most people. Born in Winston Salem, North Carolina, he graduated from high school in 1966 and joined the US Army, attached to a transport and supply unit.
After graduating from East Carolina University in Greenville NC with a degree in business administration, Slate couldn’t wait to get down to Florida.
“I taught business at a vocational high school in Jacksonville,” he tells me. “Got my dive instructor’s certificate in 1974 under the National YMCA scuba programme in Jacksonville. I took over that YMCA programme in 1978. Got my captain’s licence in 1976.”
There is no need for me to keep Captain Slate on track. His stories are endless: tales of special dives, interesting people he’s taken diving and incidents, some of which he would prefer not to publicise despite the fact that he has obvious scars to prove them.
He’ll shake your hand with a right hand missing fingers, and remaining ones deformed by a bite from a moray eel he was feeding.
Slate was mentored by Keys diving legend Steve Klem. “Klem was the ‘Pied Piper of Pennekamp Park’,” he relates, adding: “We became friends. Klem was feeding creatures. He told me that he doesn’t dive in winter. He was 66 years old, so I took over.”
Slate’s “Creature Feature“ attracted divers from all over the world to explore the ocean realm off the Keys with him. There was a time of derring-do when he would put a sardine in his mouth as an offering to barracuda. The moray eels he hand-fed would curl up around and between him and his divers, gorging themselves on fish treats.
Schools of fish followed Slate under water, waiting for hand-outs. Those were the times of teaching divers that even fierce ocean-dwellers could be tamed down with food and peaceful understanding, despite the ever-present element of danger.
It was when a moray got into Slate’s feed-bucket that things went wrong. Without knowing, he reached in to take out fish and his fingers were mistaken for a ballyhoo.
Despite breaking that rule taught in every scuba class to “look but don’t touch”, Spencer Slate has survived and brought thousands of divers to a better understanding of ocean life.
Lightning strikes
Lightning struck near Slate’s dive-shop. Torrential rain pelted down, roads were flooded. Butch Hendricks, president of Lifeguard Systems, was down to dive. Ocean conditions were rough and small-craft advisories had been issued.
Slate had his dive-boat The Lost Continent ready, with Captain Dillon standing by. Hendricks called to ask if morning dives could be put off until afternoon. Not a problem. It gave Slate a chance to interact with the youthful dive student and his instructor and to tell tales.
“The Ark Royal was in,” he told them. “It was Britain’s prime aircraft-carrier. Conditions were worse than today. I got a call from the ship, was asked if I’d take Royal Navy divers out to the Spiegel Grove shipwreck.
“I told them it was rough, 8-10ft seas. They said it was the only chance they’d get, and had their own gear. I said yes. They got here, 10 of them. I told them, it’s going to be rough. They came aboard and stowed their double navy tanks and gear. It was touchy – 10ft waves. The ocean was so strong that when we got close to the site I had to go at idle speed.”
Slate sat back in a swivel-chair in his office cubicle, feet propped against the wall, blue eyes mischievous as he regaled the young divers with the story.
“I told them: Get ready, I’m not tying up to a mooring ball. Five at a time jump in and go down. When you come up, find any mooring ball and I’ll pick you up.
“They came up, got back on board and said it was the best dive they ever had. I was out in lightning. Man it was sharp, coming down. I’ve got a ground on the boat. I looked up at the mast and there was a blue halo around it – what do they call that, St Elmo’s Fire?
“I told everybody not to touch anything metal. I got a jolt when I had to grab the wheel.”
The Bibb bell
The ship’s bell from the US Coast Guard cutter George M Bibb sits in Captain Slate’s classroom. When the cutter was decommissioned and being taken down before it was to be sunk with a sister-ship as an artificial reef in the Keys, an acquaintance of Slate’s bought the bell.
In true fashion, there is a tale there: “Ed Uditis had a marine antiques business. When he got the bell, he told me he had something for me and would I like to have it? I said yes, and he gave me this bell originally from the Bibb.”
Divers on the sunken ship can relate to days when it served proudly, and its bell is now preserved with a pioneer of diving who continues to share his teaching experience in the Florida Keys.
Sea Hunt aired between 1958 and 1961. Captain Skip Dawson, Slate’s repair technician, has Lloyd Bridges’ original double tanks, the ones used in the series, and he dives with them – another living legend with the kind of experience in and under the oceans that has earned worldwide respect and admiration.
Captain Slate’s Scuba Adventures is on Highway 1, Tavernier at Mile Marker 90.7 oceanside.
Also by John Christopher Fine on Divernet: CORAL DEATH IN THE CARIBBEAN, THE MIRACLE OF MARINE TURTLES, CORALS HAPPIER IN THE GULF STREAM, FATHER OF UNDERWATER ART: ANDRE LABAN
