“Excessive bureaucracy or adherence to rules, especially in public business. So named because of the red or pink tape used to bind official documents.” The Concise Oxford Dictionary

100 years ago

In 1916, the Admiralty took delivery of a barge (85 ft by 38 ft) fitted with a large diving bell (14 ft x 10 ft x 7 ft). It was designed to lay and repair moorings at Gibraltar. The bell was lowered to the seabed from the barge, through a moon pool, and access was provided via a 37 ft high shaft, 3 ft in diameter, fitted with an air lock at the top. The bell with its shaft weighed 40 tons! Does anybody know when it was decommissioned?

150 years ago

Spring tides in April 1866 exposed more gold on the wreck of the Royal Charter, 2719 tons, which had sunk on the Anglesey coast at Moelfre on 26 October 1859. Divers recovered 140 sovereigns and they estimated that “thousands of pounds are yet to be recovered. The gold coins are as bright as if they had been newly coined”. The bodies washed up on the beaches were distributed between nine local church yards.