Notre premier reflexe a été de rechercher dans le trombinoscope des anciens de la Comex, afin d'y voir la photo de "notre" plongeur, prise dans la années 70.
One day, Aurelien - a friend of ours and customer who knows our passion for submarine adventures and above all, the Comex diving watches – told us about his uncle, a former professional diver who had worked for years in the Company, all around the world. To us, it was excellent news to be able to meet him.
Our first idea was to go through the photo album of the former members of the Comex.
45 ans plus tard nous voilà chez lui, dans sa propriété du Salario, sur les hauteurs d'Ajaccio, la maison de son enfance.
Presque un demi siècle après que cette photo ait été prise, il était difficile pour nous de ne rien remarquer, mais "l'erreur" ne pouvait pas échapper à son épouse!
"il s'agit de mon beau frère sur cette photo, c'est Paul, le frère de Ferdy"
Incroyable, il y avait donc deux Valeani plongeurs à la Comex!
L'ainé, Paul qui avait intégré la Comex un peu avant son frère, Ferdinand. Tout jeunes déjà, ils étaient passionnés de plongée sous-marine, vers 25-30ans ils montent un club, très vite, il y en aura trois (Ajaccio, Calvi et Porto Vecchio)
C'est en 1972, après une première expérience concluante dans une entreprise Marseillaise en tant que "scaphandrier lourd" que Ferdinand rejoint son frère au sein de la Comex.
Paul, l'ainé, se consacre plutôt aux tests et aux plongées expérimentales sous la direction du Docteur Xavier Fructus, pionnier dans la recherche et la maitrise des plongées en saturations (élaboration des tables de décompressions encore d'actualité de nos jours)
Ferdinand, avec son esprit de baroudeur préfère les missions in situ, les travaux manuels, la recherche de solutions techniques, et il aime trop l'aventure, la découverte, c'est d'ailleurs un passionné d'archéologie sous marine, et un grand collectionneur, il a amassé de véritables trésors tout au long de sa vie, cela dit il n'a jamais été intéressé par l'argent, il les conserve pour leurs beauté et leurs histoires.
45 years later, here we are, at his house, in his property in Salario, on the heights of Ajaccio, in his childhood house.
It’s almost been half a century since that picture was taken. It was hard for us not to notice anything, but the mistake could not go unnoticed to his wife !
"It’s my brother-in-law on this photo – that’s Paul, Ferdy’s brother !”
Incredible thing : there were 2 Valeani who dived for Comex !
The eldest, Paul, first came to work for Comex slightly before his brother, Ferdinand. Even very young, they were already fond of scuba-diving. As they get 25 and 30, they organize a club. And very soon, there would be 3 clubs (in Ajaccio, Calvi and Porto Vecchio).
In 1972, after a first conclusive experience as “heavy deep-sea diver” in a company from Marseilles, Ferdinand joins his brother in the Comex.
Paul, the eldest, devotes himself to tests and experimental diving sessions directed by Dr Xavier Fructus, a pioneer in research and mastery in saturation diving (development of the “decompression tables”, still topical nowadays).
Ferdinand, with his bushwhacker’s mindset, prefers the in situ missions, manual work, searching for technical solutions. He’s fond of adventures and discoveries. By the way, he’s crazy about submarine archeology. He’s a great collector and has piled up true treasures all his life long. Yet, he has never been interested in money – he keeps them for their beauty and stories.
Une de ses premières missions pour la Comex fut le renflouement du bateau le Carnoules en 1973 dans le port d'Ajaccio.
One of his first missions for the Comex was the raising of the boat called Le Carnoules in 1973 in the harbour of Ajaccio.
Ci dessous un extrait des Archives Nationales du Gouvernement sur les accidents de navigations et de fortunes en mer:
Below is an excerpt from the Governmental National Archives on sailing accidents and fortunes at sea.
A few photographs taken by Ferdy at the time
Son expérience et ses aptitudes avaient fait de lui l'un des meilleurs dans le domaine, aussi, on lui avait demandé de partir en mission en Libye pour renflouer plus de 200 bateaux, il avait utilisé plusieurs méthodes selon les navires et selon tous un tas de paramètres:
-grutage, on remonte le bateau à l'aide d'une barge spéciale munie d'une puissante grue.
To re-establish this colossus, formworking had been needed, using submarine concrete around the side door before emptying the water out of the huge cargo.
His experience and skills had made him one of the best in the domain. Thus, he had been asked to go on a mission in Libya to refloat more than 200 boats. He had used several methods depending on the ships and according to numerous parameters :
- cutting using a thermal lance (injecting pressurized oxygen in a tube containing steel threads ; with such temperatures – some exceeding 4000°C – almost all materials can be cut or drilled).
- pumping – the boat is -emptied using large pumps which are sunken after the ship has been made watertight.
-hoisting – the boat is pulled up using a specific barge equipped with a very powerful crane.
C'était un travail difficile et dangereux, un soir il y a eu une explosion sur une plateforme, les bouteilles de mélanges se sont enflammées et il y a eu une réaction en chaine "c'est le plus beau feu d'artifice que je n'aie jamais vu" heureusement il n'y a pas eu de mort a déplorer, juste un brulé: la personne chargée d'effectuer les mélanges gazeux qui n'avait pas été assez vigilante.
A part ces quelques anecdotes, Ferdy adorait son travail et il parle de cette période avec les yeux qui pétillent et la tête remplie d'émotions: "C'était mieux qu'au club Med"
Ferdinand also used to work in Congo, near Pointe Noire on oil deposits sites.
It was a dangerous job. One night, an explosion took place on a rig. The mixed gaz bottles got ignited. It was a chain reaction – “it’s the most beautiful firework I had ever seen”. Fortunately, no one died. One person got burnt though – the person whose job was to mix gases and who had not been careful enough.
“When you’re on a skiff or a rig, you mustn’t leave if the swell is above 3 meters’ high. One day, I did whereas it was 6-meter high. Since that day, my colleagues called me Kamikaze-Diver”.
Apart from these anecdotes, Ferdy loved his job and he recalls that period with a sparkle in his eye, his head filled with emotion : “it was better than the Club Med”.
Lors de ces plongées, la température de la mer peut descendre sous les 5°C, l'aquanaute est alors équipé d'une combinaison spéciale alimentée en eau chaude gérée, comme le dosage en mélange gazeux d'ailleurs, depuis une tourelle en saturation.
He also worked on oil rigs in the North Sea, where he did his deepest dives (more than 250m) and so he goes : “when you’re working at more than 100meter-deep, you just tell yourself that those who stayed on the surface must have trouble breathing as it feels so good to be down here, breathing in your mix”.
During those diving sessions, the temperature of the sea can get as low as 5°C. The diver is thus equipped with a special wetsuit supplied with produced hot water, just as the dosage in gaseous mix is, from a saturated conning-tower.
Toutes ces heures à réfléchir à de nouvelles façons de travailler afin de solutionner les problèmes leur ont permis d'acquérir une réputation planétaire: "tout le monde voulait la Comex et ses hommes, peut importait le prix, ils nous voulaient, on était toujours en avance sur les autres"
Throughout his career, Ferdy and his colleagues developed a certain number of techniques, such as a pressurized dome they put on pipe-lines to make welders or technicians go down in the depths and simultaneously working dry since they were protected by the dome.
All these hours spent to develop new ways to work to solve these problems enabled them to get world fame : “everyone wanted the Comex and its men, whatever price to pay, they wanted us. We were always ahead of the others”.
1982 : With HDG, celebrating their 10-year collaboration
1983: Ils se retrouvent lors d'une soirée chez Delauze
1983 : They meet up on a night at Delauze’s.
2010 : HDG dedicates his biography to him
Ferdy has worn several Rolex Comex watches along his career, but there’s one he particularly remembers. “As a site manager, I wore the 600m Rolex watch with a helium valve”. Ferdy thus wore, among others, a Sea Dweller 1665.
Ici on le voit aux commandes du banc gérant un caisson hyperbare
Here he’s in charge of the bench managing a hyperbaric chamber.
Avant de nous quitter, il a tenu a nous offrir une de ses médailles d'ancien plongeur de la Comex.
After being a super diver and a skilled site manager, Ferdy ended his career at the hyperbaric chamber in the Ajaccio hospital.
Before leaving us, he wished to give us one of his medals as a former Comex diver.
PS: Toutes les photos sont la propriété de Ferdinand Valeani qui nous a autorisé à les publier dans cet article, merci d'indiquer la provenance si vous les réutilisez.
Today, he’s enjoying good times with his wife in the house he was born, 75 years ago. We would like to thank them both for their reception and generosity. We wish to greet Ferdy for his career, kindness and humour.
PS : all pictures are Ferdinand Valeani’ property, who authorized us to publish them in this article. Please indicate their source if you re-use them.
