My year as a commercial bell diver on the E.W. Thornton was one of the most memorable of my diving career. The Thornton was a historic, large twin-hull catamaran offshore drilling rig built for Reading & Bates Exploration Co., operating in the Gulf of Thailand.It was my very first offshore commercial diving job, and stepping onto that rig marked the beginning of a completely new chapter in my life. The work was demanding, the conditions could be unforgiving, and every day brought new challenges and lessons.Our rotation began every two weeks with a fixed-wing flight from the old Changi Military Airport in Singapore to Songkhla, Thailand. From there, we would travel offshore to the rig, where we lived and worked for the duration of our hitch.That year aboard the E.W. Thornton gave me enough stories to last a lifetime.Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing the true experiences of my first year as an offshore commercial bell diver in the Gulf of Thailand. Some are funny, some are unbelievable, and a few are genuinely harrowing—but every one of them happened.The series will include:* The day my supervisor was caught with drugs at Singapore Airport.* Swimming alongside a whale shark.* Witnessing the Vietnamese boat people and the heartbreaking scenes that have stayed with me ever since.* Removing a boat that became trapped beneath our twin hulls.* Swimming with giant remoras that seemed determined to follow divers everywhere.* Bell diving with TriMix and diver recoveries.* Deep air dives where nitrogen narcosis left me feeling dangerously drunk.* Life aboard one of the world’s most unusual drilling rigs.* Stabbed in the leg with a Buck knife and a deep cut on my hand * And many more stories from a year spent living and working offshore.Commercial diving in the early 1980s was a different world. Safety standards were improving, but the work remained demanding, the environment unforgiving, and every dive carried real risks. These are my memories of that remarkable year—told exactly as I remember them.