He has breakfasted with whales and sharks, he has pursued the Loch Ness monster. He holds the Atlantic descent record, withstanding 60,000 lbs of crushing power. More men have stepped foot on the moon than have seen that deep, subsea world. And what does Ralph B. White hate most? "Being cold and wet."
That said, the award-winning cinematographer and film editor, who was expedition leader for the film Titanic, isn't a complete "Nintendo diver" - nickname for the underwater photographers who do most of their work in submersibles or ROVS - remotely operated vehicles. Recently, he enjoyed one of his finest "fundives" while waiting for a job to begin on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
"It was the first time in 15 years I had been down without a camera in my hand. For a few days I was able to kick back, drink, look at pretty women and dive, in that order. Yeah, that was a tough assignment," he told The Irish Times, speaking shortly before leaving San Francisco for Dublin, where he is guest at this weekend's annual Underwater Ireland meet in Malahide. Now 56 years old and with the manner of an ex-military man, White may not be altogether StoneAge-warrior-returning-from-the-sea, but gender lines are clearly drawn. Men are men, women are mermaids and the good guys always win in the end. Fear and fantasy are inextricably mixed. In his profession, incredible - albeit calculated - risks are taken daily in the name of the great god Entertainment.
His curriculum vitae is as breathtaking as any of his many dives, and much of his career has been associated with the Titanic. He was a member of the original team involving Dr Robert Ballard from the Woodshole Oceanographic Institute, Emory Kristof of the National Geographic Society and Bill Tatum of the Titanic Historical Society which first proposed to mount an expedition to search for the ship in 1976. Nine years later, he was cameraman during the electronic imaging search on the Woodshole research vessel, Knorr which found the wreck.
In 1987, he co-directed the salvage operation and photography during the recovery of more than 1,400 artefacts from the area. By this time, he and Kristof had already pioneered the development of advanced camera systems. In a neat example of technology transfer, he has used some of his techniques at altitude - as co-inventor of the bell camera helmet which he used in filming free-fall sky-diving for the Ripcord television series made for Ivan Tors Productions.
Titanic is a name that crops up continually; the wreck has spawned its own school of films and documentaries. One of these - Return To The Titanic, Live - claims to be the highest-rated syndicated programme in history. He has made 23 descents to the ship, and one aborted mission, in a submersible, and has spent a staggering 386 hours on the site.
Much of his documentary work for the National Geographic Society has also earned him distinction. His badges include fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, fellow of the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences, and he also commanded the "elite award-winning" Los Angeles County Sheriff's department's photographic unit. It is a way of life that can take its toll, but he still likes "everything that is bad for me", including greasy burgers and chips. "In the first minute of descent to the Titanic, we pass the 100-foot threshold of most scuba divers," he explains. "The total trip takes two-and-a-half hours. Very few people have ever gone down that far."
He does not believe ROVs have taken much of the adrenalin out of the job. This is in contrast to his buddy, Emory Kristof, who describes graphically in the current issue of Subsea, the Irish Underwater Council's quarterly magazine, how remote from the physical elements one can now be. Life for Kristof and company used to be synonymous with "compressed air, rubber suits, the thrill of weightlessness, and the joy of being at one with the water". Now, he says, the only physical sensations experienced in a steel or titanium cocoon, or on the surface of the sea in front of an ROV video link, are "the ache in your sitter, or the sinking feeling (pun intended) when you hang up, or wreck, the sub at 4,000 metres".
White has recently been working on a Russian expedition that will return to the Titanic for filming and artefact recovery. Next August, he will be following a Russian nuclear ice-breaker to the geographic North Pole, and will descend 17,000 feet to "take a look". To his regret, he says, he has never donned a wetsuit in Irish waters, and won't get time to take in an Armada wreck or two on this visit. He has to rush home, after his one-week lecture tour, for the Academy Awards.
Ralph B White will give an audio- visual presentation, Discovering The Titanic, at 5 p.m. today and tomorrow at Underwater Ireland in the Grand Hotel, Malahide, Dublin; on Monday at 8 p.m. at the Ulster Hall, Belfast; on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Rochestown Hotel, Cork; and on Friday at 8 p.m. at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin. Tickets at £10 are available at the door or in advance from HMV.