At the begining of WW II, two companies, Morse and Schrader, were manufacturing the Mark V deep sea diving helmet. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, DESCO and Miller-Dunn also began manufacturing the Mark V. Although heavy and cumbersome by modern standards, the MK V helmet provided the diver with a safe working environment . The MK V served with distinction and survived in the US navy until the 1980's, at which time it was replaced by light- weight diving helmets. Image courtesy of Mike Schoger.

 

A Morse US Navy ishued diving helmet with a welding shield.

A Miller Dunn Mark V helmet.

A Kirby Morgan Type KMAH-1 commercial 4-light air helmet, also called Yokohama, as it was produced, under license, by the Yokohama Diving Apparatus, Japan.

This AH-3 (Advanced Helmet - 3) was built by General Aquadyne Inc., Santa Barbara California.

MORSE DIVING

Morse diving is 412th oldest business in the United States that is currently still in operation. This fall I visited Ken and Donna Downey To check out there shop here are few pictures from my visit. If you ever get to Rockland MA USA besure to drop by and say hi but call first. "Morse is a leader in hardhat diving manufacture and related supplies, and a major player in Navy contracts since WWII, when it helped develop the legendary Mark V helmet and system. It is a respected company, known worldwide for its superior service, quality, workmanship and attention to detail.

Established in 1837 as Fletcher & Morse on the Boston waterfront, the company was initially engaged in the manufacture of brass goods and parts for the burgeoning shipping industry. A sister company down the street, owned by Arthur Hale, manufactured its own dive hats using Morse parts. Morse company records of hand pumps used for surface air supply go back to 1861, so hats may have been produced in the 1840s and '50s. Andrew J. Morse's heirs sold Morse in 1939 to the Farrells (owners of McKee pile diving company), who continued to operate it in Boston as the Morse Diving Equipment Company. In 1970 they moved the operation to Rockland, MA, 20 miles south of Boston. Ken joined the company in 1978 as a machinist, there after learning every aspect of shop production. After twenty years with Morse he purchased the company in 1998, continuing its tradition of quality with His wife, Donna Downey, who keeps the details of the business running smoothly".

These beautiful original Morse Diving wooden cabinets contain hundreds of pieces of hardware necessary for helmet fabrication at Morse diving.

History of Diving Museum Florida USA 

During a recent diving trip to the Florida Keys USA I took the time out to vist the new History of Diving Museum founded by Drs. Joe and Sally Bauer who hold in there possession the worlds largest collection of historic diving equipment and research documents. Joe and Sally Bauer have done a fantastic job in creating this education centre and there collection is unbelievable and I highly recommend any one interested in diving helmets and the history of diving to make the time and effort to visit there museum. The Museum is located at MM 83 Islamorada, Florida keys. I've added a few pictures below of there museum for your viewing.

Here I am standing in front of the Bauers collection of home made diving helmets. I'm sure I've seen a few of these for sale on Ebay in the past.

The Snead helmet made in Jersey City, New Jersey and made of cast iron and weighing in at 60 pounds and requires no extra weights for diving. These helmets were crafted between the 1900's to the 1940's. Four models were designed, one being cast in bronzee with a smaller face plate. It was distributed by E.J. Willis Co., New York, New York, Specialist in Marine Equipment. This helmet weighed 71 lbs. There has also been a few reproductions of this helmet on the open market, so if you come across one that your interested in buying be carefull and check it out thoroughly.

 

Nicholas Toth Master greek sponge diving helmet maker and historian. Nicholas presented his helmet design and work at the 20006 Dema show in Orlando Florida USA.

SubAqeus open water helmet made in Florida USA.

  

Two T12 Asian diving helmets. The one on the left is 40 + years old. The one on the right is a 1976 tinned version

Three bolt Asian T3 diving helmet

Two early home made shallow water diving helmets owned by Richard Adams of Diving Machines. These types of helmets were crafted from old boiler water tanks and made in the back yards of America in the early days when owning a professional helmet was out of the reach and to costly for most average divers.

 

A fabric covered brass blasting helmet. At times this helmet was used by a few as a shallow water diving helmet.

Home made diving helmet fabricated by Conrad Warren USA, I purchased this on Ebay.

Richard Adams displaying a vintage wooden home made diving helmet.

   

A US Navy Free-Flow Diving mask manufactured by Desco. "Air is fed through a non-return valve, an air-control valve and a three-way inhale valve. Air is exhausted on the left side of the mask through a rubber-disc exhaust valve. This mask is also none as the Browne mask.

 

AVictor Berge mask. At the outbreak of WW2, Swedish diver Victor Berge gave the United States Navy the authority to produce his mask. It was produced in two styles, with a modified aviator regulator, and free flow. The Ohio Rubber Co. produced the mask. The 1954 book Danger is My Life was written by Victor Berges and printed by the Author press in great Britain and is highly recommended for reading. This mask is from the Diving Machines collection.

My Royal Navy CDBA rebreather 

The CDBA military rebreather provides a bailout system for the diver. This system comprises of two small aluminum cylinders, mounted on the front of the rig, which directly feeds a supply of pure oxygen to the diver's counterlung in the event of any problems with the main gas supply system. This system is about as simple as it gets with no regulator or any other mechanism other than a simple on/off valve. As with all other aspects of the CDBA, rugged simplicity is the engineering goal andthis goal was well achieved.

 

BM 3 Russian rubber full face mask with wiper blade dead center.

 

Aquadyne commercial diving band mask.

 

An early metal casted diving mask.

A home made shallow water diving helmet

An early home-made open water boiler diving helmet.

 

 

 

 

 

The Aqua Bell open water diving helmet, produced in the seventies, is safely usable to depths of no more than 35 feet and made of molded "Tenite" propionate - a tough rugged plastic. This helmet was manufactured by the Aqua Bell Corporation in Windsor, Wisconsin. USA.

 

Diving using the Aqua Bell helmet.

  

 

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