The compleat googler.

  • I found by chance about ten years ago in an old Paris bookshop this pretty rare book named "The compleat googler" and wrote by an american guy named Gilpatric
    book edited in 1934 80 years ago!!
    bought it about 250$... and did'nt argue the price!
    Amazing first book about frediving spearfishing written during a long stay on the French Riviera my native place. The author got an underwater hunting initiation by locals divers (a few at the time) and became addicted;)
    the spear chapter is amazing: DIY detachable spear heads design is so modern!!:thumbsup2:
    At the time fishy inshore and nice Med Sea captures made by pionneers.

  • Boy does that bring back memories. :thumbsup2:


    I remember owning that book in early 50's and I probably read it a hundred times. Wish I had all of my early books and magazines


    Great find!!!

    Edited once, last by Oscar ().

  • I read this book over and over when I was a kid, it truly inspired me even though my ocean was a New England lake. Later in the 70's I read it again as I first skin dove Cali local waters. Some time later it was loaned out, never to be seen again. I plan to replace it some day so my son will get a fully stocked dive library when I transcend to energy and star dust.



    When his wife, Maude Louise Gilpatric, learned that she had breast cancer in July 1950, they decided to commit suicide together. While waiting for the diagnosis to be confirmed, they explored the confusing array of treatment options with multiple experts. He shot her in the back of the head, then shot himself. They left notes for friends and family, saying they chose "mercy bullets" over "magic bullets". Their bodies were found in their Santa Barbara home by a house guest.


    Although it was never proven, is widely believed that the doctor had read the wrong medical chart and that Maude did not have cancer.:(


    Cheers, Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

  • That slip-tip is beautiful!
    And the book looks it, too.


    For the pricing of the book, USD 250 sounds like a lot - but the only one I have seen recently was USD 650;-)

  • thank,s for your feed back and from the veterans, in particular
    some captures taken at the time: pics taken from a book writtten by R Deveaux (1944) describing all the gear and technics used by spearos.
    -Gilpatrik holding a nice med sea bass
    -colleagues with brown grouper, dolphin:nono:, and how to load a gun...
    the two suction thingies fixed to the mask used to reduce teh mask pressure;)

  • You are making me feel old since these are all familiar to me from the early days. I never saw the mask with "equalizes" in person but remember seeing it in magazines. But what brought a smile to me was the loading of the Spring Gun. I had two Italuan Spring Guns (Might have been Spanish) one was about 5feet long other was maybe 7 feet in length. I was small and light and could never load either one with the provided loader with handle on my thigh - so I had to get out of the water and load them like the photo shows - place heavy thick shaft point down on boat deck or reef or rocks and bounce speargun until the shaft caught. Wish I still had them but Don Paul has a few still. :)

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