Vic Verlinden

Adventurer / wreckdiver / Underwater photographer

Vic was born in Belgium and learnt to dive in 1975. In 1979 he did his first dive expedition tot the United states Vergin Islands where he made his first underwater pictures on the wreck of the RMS Rhone. In 1982 he made an expedition to the remote islands of Papoea New Guinea where he made a 12 page reportages for the Dutch magazine Panorama. Since then, his photographs were publiched by many international magazines and he won more than 35 prizes in photo competitions around the world. Vic worked also as a diving guide in Israel and Egypt (1983/84)

He dived more than 400 different shipwrecks in his career as a wreckdiver and found in 1992 the famous historical wreck "TheRoompot" in the North Sea.The ship was sunk in 1853 ans since then lay untouched on the bottem of the Northsea where it was discovered by Vic. Another important discovery in the Northsea,where the bronze art deco sculptures of the passenger ship Christiaan Huygens. Vic was also one of the first divers on the famous wreck of the Dutch ocean liner Tubantia. He cooperated with several programs for the Belgium and Dutch television on the subject of wreckdiving. On 30 oktober 1991 Vic made for him a historic dive with the submarine FA Forel from Professor Jacques Picard in the lake of Laussane in Switserland. Prof. Picard was the first person in the world to dive (with the bathyscaaf Trieste) a depth of 11000 meter in the ocean.

In 2004 Vic dived on the wreck of the Congoboot Leopoldville and discovered the untouched Carley liferafts on the wreck. More than 700 American souldiers died on this wreck. In 2005 Wreck Dive Team was formed by Vic. In 2008 he was one of the members of the expedition to the wreck of the HMS Victoria off the coast in Libanon. He dived to a depth of 120 meter and took pictures at a depth of 91 meter. The dive lasted more than 4 hours. Vic is currently a staff writer and photographer for the Dutch diving magazine "DUIKEN" and the biggest technical diving magazine in the world "ADVANCED DIVER MAGAZINE" in the USA.