Submarine Products Ltd were a diving gear manufacturer with a factory in Hexham

Hexham

Hexham is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, located south of the River Tyne, and was the administrative centre for the Tynedale district from 1974 to 2009. The three major towns in Tynedale were Hexham, Prudhoe and Haltwhistle, although in terms of population, Prudhoe was...

 in Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It was founded in 1959 by Lt.Cdr.Hugh Oswell.

Until the 1950s in Britain Siebe Gorman

Siebe Gorman

Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd was a British company which developed diving equipment and breathing equipment and worked on commercial diving and marine salvage projects...

 kept aqualungs expensive, and many British sport divers had to use home-made breathing sets and ex-armed forces or ex-industry rebreathers, and some became expert at home-making scuba diving demand regulator

Diving regulator

A diving regulator is a pressure regulator used in scuba or surface supplied diving equipment that reduces pressurized breathing gas to ambient pressure and delivers it to the diver. The gas may be air or one of a variety of specially blended breathing gases...

s from industrial parts such as Calor Gas regulators. Finally Hugh Oswell at Submarine Products Ltd designed round the Cousteau-Gagnan patent and made sport diving breathing sets accessibly cheap. Submarine Products Ltd were the first company to make scuba sets readily available to the public in the United Kingdom.

They developed a unique diver delivery vehicle (the Subskimmer

Subskimmer

The Subskimmer is a Diver Propulsion Vehicle which is a form of RIB with an outboard petrol engine. It is equipped to inflate and deflate itself as it runs. When submerged it seals its motor and runs with battery-electric thrusters, which are on a rotatable cross-arm, and is deflated...

), and were important for introducing high quality plastics (eg ABS

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene is a common thermoplastic. Its melting point is approximately 105 °C ....

) into the manufacture of underwater breathing apparatus. They for many years supplied their Black Prince regulators and other open circuit equipment to the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. When the British Navy decided to purchase foreign competitors' closed circuit equipment

Rebreather

A rebreather is a type of breathing set that provides a breathing gas containing oxygen and recycled exhaled gas. This recycling reduces the volume of breathing gas used, making a rebreather lighter and more compact than an open-circuit breathing set for the same duration in environments where...

, export became increasingly difficult and Submarine Products Ltd closed down in 1990 after financial difficulties.