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15 Facts About William Royal

1.

William Robert Royal was an American scuba diver in the United States Air Force and amateur archeologist.

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2.

William Royal moved to Manatee County, Florida, during the Great Depression and operated a passenger airplane service in the Bahamas and Cuba in the late 1930s.

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3.

William Royal served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, during which he rode and killed sharks underwater in the Pacific Ocean.

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4.

William Royal retired from active duty with the rank of major in 1945.

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5.

Between World War II and the Korean War, William Royal lived in Detroit and Venice, Florida and worked as a building contractor.

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6.

In 1951 William Royal was recalled to active duty, serving until 1958 as a civil engineer at Air Force bases around the world.

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7.

In 1958 William Royal retired from active duty with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

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8.

In 1959 William Royal began to investigate Little Salt Spring in North Port Charlotte, Florida.

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9.

William Royal discovered an underwater cave containing stalactites, which could only have formed when the cave was dry some 6000 years earlier.

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10.

In 1970 William Royal moved back to Florida and began diving at Warm Mineral Springs seven days a week, searching for material that would convince scientists to investigate the site.

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11.

On March 18,1972, William Royal suffered decompression sickness after becoming trapped in the cave at the bottom of Warm Mineral Springs.

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12.

William Royal recovered after recompression treatment at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but suffered dysbaric osteonecrosis as a result of the accident, necessitating the placement of a platinum cap on the ball of his right femur.

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13.

In later years William Royal investigated underwater midden deposits in the Gulf of Mexico west of Venice, Florida, and fossils and artifacts in Salt Creek, a drainage from Warm Mineral Springs to the Myakka River.

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14.

William Royal's ashes were placed in a tunnel at Warm Mineral Springs.

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15.

William Royal was survived by his wife, Shirley E Royal, whom he married in 1970 and who died in 2001.

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