NUMA lost a cherished friend and contributor on January 17th when David Ellsworth Boyd passed at the age of 92. Ells, as he was known to his pals, was a legend in the diving community, having explored and written about dozens of shipwrecks over his busy lifetime.

Born and raised in the Baltimore area, Ells acquired a love of the sea while lifeguarding at Ocean Beach, Maryland, during his college years. “As a youngster I was always fascinated by the undersea world. I read books and watched films that portrayed exciting underwater adventures. I even wrote a short story about deep sea diving when I was in high school.”

His curiosity of the underwater world combined with a talent for writing led him to become a contributing writer for Skin Diver magazine, specializing in shipwrecks. He went on to write hundreds of articles for Skin Diver and numerous other publications (estimated at over a thousand articles in a fifty-year career).

Ellsworth demonstrating a spear gun to 1950’s pinup model Bettie Page

He learned to dive on an ‘aqualung’ in the early days of SCUBA, well before dive tables and safety standards had been defined. He applied his newfound skills to exploring shipwrecks up and down the East Coast and in the Caribbean, sharing the details of his findings with legions of readers. Ells even learned the tricky art of underwater photography with leaky primitive equipment, adding his own photos to the enticing articles he wrote.

Acquiring a Masters degree from the University of Miami, Ells became an educator when away from the sea. He was an expert in elementary education, teaching at Towson University. Capitalizing on his baritone voice and animated personality, he kept every student on the edge of their seats.

But shipwrecks were his true passion and his love of history drove him to achieve renown expertise in the field. He wrote for NUMA’s original newsletter, NUMA News, before taking over the NUMA online blog, and assisted Clive in researching a number of historical wrecks (as well as appearing as a character in two of the Dirk Pitt books). He loved to talk about underwater wrecks, and his popular speech, “Always Another Shipwreck,” was never forgotten by those in attendance.

Fair winds and following seas to a true original.