Vintage Diving Videos: The MkV Diver's Dress

The iconic MkV (pronounced "mark five") diver's dress has been around.  Originally produced in 1916, the classic helmet was used by the US Navy all the way up till 1980.  It was used concurrently by military organizations and commercial divers all over the world.  It is perhaps the most iconic symbol of diving and its likeness is often used as a logo by military divers, commercial diving companies, and even scuba enthusiasts (funny how that works).   Because they are huge pieces of brass, extremely durable, and relatively simple in construction, there are still many MkV hats in existence and many are still in dive-able shape.  I got the chance to dive one at the end of commercial diving school and it was an experience I'll remember forever, not only because the whole rig weighed about 175 pounds... One of the coolest parts of diving the MkV was the care and tradition in how you put on the dress (dress as in diving helmet, drysuit, boots, weights, etc... not cross-dressing).  It's a slow and careful process intended to ensure everything is where it needs to be and put on the diver correctly.  The method by which the tenders dress the divers is standardized and done the same way every time.  The US Navy even produced some classic videos showing the process which I'll attach here.

Ok, that last one is me diving the MkV in dive school.  I think this video is on BottomTimer somewhere already but it's my pride and joy so here it is again and here are a couple pictures from the day.  

 

Chicago: The Big Move and the Future of BottomTimer.com

My beautiful wife and I celebrating my graduation from commercial diving school.  Man, I already miss SB.  

It's hard to believe I haven't written here since mid May.  All I can say in my defense is that life has been... well, crazy.  I graduated from dive school sometime right around then (YESSSS!)  Also in that time, my wife and I have moved from sunny Santa Barbara, CA to also sunny (for now) Chicago, we've gotten new jobs, and we're learning how to live in a new and much more urban setting.  Though it was a difficult decision making process for us the choice to move here hinged on several important factors.

Diving momentos in our new home in Chicago.  

For one, as a new graduate of commercial diving school I was forced to look upon the bleak state of the current commercial diving industry.  As you may imagine, when oil prices are where they're at (low) the amount of diving tasks and underwater construction projects winds down significantly making good entry level diving jobs hard to find.  My professors ensure the cyclical nature of the industry will see it swing up in the next few years but what is there to do with the next few years?

We stopped by my Mom's house in Denver during our move.  

 My wife and I ultimately decided on hitting a few birds with the one stone, the stone being the move.  The move brings us very close to family for the first time in years, enables a scene change for both of us as far as jobs, and enables me to continue my education with the help of the GI Bill.  I start at DePaul University in a few weeks and I'm excited to get going and finally finish my bachelor's degree.  This way, when the the diving industry gets going again I'll be even more educated and ready for a hopefully lengthy career underwater.  

It's hard to not love Chicago when you go sailing on Lake Michigan.  We're pretty scared about the whole Winter thing though...

Now, what does all of this mean for BottomTimer.com, whose dedicated fans have been sitting on the edge of their seats for weeks?  I'm not going anywhere.  My love for diving and the diving world will not falter and I will continue to bring you content which I feel is worth checking out.  There may be some slight deviation in terms of the nature of my posts as I probably won't be hard hat diving any time extremely soon but you can still expect dive watch reviews, diving articles, and maybe a few scuba trips from yours truly.  It blows my mind to see that my little blog has been viewed ten thousand times.  I'm thankful and motivated to make it better than ever.  Stick with us.

Coming soon: A review of this sea monster from Laco.  BottomTimer.com is going nowhere.  

Diving Heavy Gear, the Kirby Morgan Air Hat (and others)

As a follow up to my previous post, I'd like to also make note of the other various diving apparatus my class got to use the other day.  In addition to the MkV, we also had the opportunity to go diving with the Kirby Morgan Air Helmet or KMAH-1 which while much lighter than the MkV is still considered "heavy gear."  I did not personally dive this hat but I have some great pictures of the KMAH-1 in use which deserve to be shared!

But first, here's an abbreviated and poorly researched history of the hat!

Probably produced by Bob Kirby and Bev Morgan sometime around 1965, the Air Helmet was intended to be a better diving apparatus for undersea work, specifically construction and fishing for such critters as abalone.  This new style helmet was much lighter than other diving helmets of its day and featured very large, plexiglass lights which made it easier to see what you're doing on bottom.  Also, improvements were made to air inlet systems allowing for better, quieter airflow and improved communications.  Functioning much like the MkV with a breastplate, screwed on helmet, and drysuit,  the KMAH-1 was an improvement over existing diving technology while not constituting the complete change in the style of system which Kirby Morgan would later produce.

On to the photos!  There's also a few appearances from other diving systems including some cool full face scuba masks and I'll attempt to describe them where they appear.   Photo credit once again to Mr. John Ruhl.  Without his photographic efforts, I would have been hard pressed to create such an incredible piece of journalistic art.  National Geographic should be calling me up anyday now...  Here's John Morgan getting dressed in the Kirby Morgan Air Helmet getup and getting a dive in!

As you can see, John is a large gentleman and it took some doing to get the suit on him.  

And now for a few of the other interesting things we got to take diving...

Here's a classic USN Jack Brown "full face" scuba mask on the left and a new OTS diving mask on the right.  

Left to Right: USN MkV, Kirby Morgan EXO 26, Kirby Morgan Air Helmet.

And a misty Miller-Dunn style helmet we primarily use a doorstop.  It works for diving and door stopping.  

I have no idea on this one.  Please, someone inform me.  

Different eras of heavy gear diving hugging it out.  

The brave and handsome author sporting the prototype Mod 1 from Kirby Morgan as well as the classic Doxa 1200t diving watch.  

Diving Heavy Gear, The USN MkV

A unique opportunity given to graduating members of our marine diving technology class was the chance to dive in old school heavy diving gear.  The two most vintage hats being dived were the US Navy MkV and the slightly more modern Kirby Morgan air hat, which I'll profile in a following post.    Let's start with a very short history of the legendary Navy MkV which I've shamelessly taken from around the internet.

The US Navy MkV (pronounced "mark five") diving apparatus was originally conceived in 1915 in response to an increased need for serious deep diving gear for Navy divers.  The helmet provided a relatively simple design and was similar to other diving helmets of the era in that the hat connected to a breastplate which connected to a rubberized canvas suit and was water tight meaning the diver was (relatively) dry.

The MkV had some improvements over other hats of the era with it's hinged face plate and exhaust towards the back of the divers head where bubbles could not obscure the diver's view.  Also, the hat had more "lights" also known as ports than other hats of the era and all were made of glass and had protective grills installed over them.  Like any other large, drysuit based diving system, a lot of weight was necessary to permit the diver comfortable movement on the seafloor.  With this in mind, you have to wear a heck of a lot of weight when in the MkV dress.  When I went diving with it at school, our entire load out weighed about 175lbs.  For reference, I weigh about 145lbs... hefty.

Unbelievably, the MkV apparatus was to be used by the US Navy and commercial divers with little modification over the course of decades until the US Navy officially ceased using them in 1984 when they phased into the new fangled Kirby Morgan "Superlight" diving hats.  It's reasonable to think there are still holdouts doing commercial work with the MkV all over the world.

That's enough of my butchered history lesson.  Let's move on to photos from our day diving the venerable MkV!  Much photo credit is necessary to my classmate, fellow history of diving enthusiast,  musician, and former US Navy corpsman, John Ruhl.

Getting dressed is a process, and you need a lot of help.  

The Deepsea boots, though apparently designed for Shaq, worked ok on my size 8 paws.  

Lots and lots and lots of weight!  

Pretty close to the coolest I've ever felt.  

Riding the crane operated stage into our training tank at SBCC's unique diving facilities.  

This was probably a once in a lifetime chance to dive in heavy gear and in particular, the MkV.  Complete, ready to dive MkV systems are now very rare and the expertise in their operation is even more difficult to find.  Thankfully Dan Vasey, one of our instructors, is a huge diving historian and member of the Historical Diving Society.  It is an experience I will no doubt remember for the rest of my life.

Having now dived the rig (albeit in a tank), I can tell you that it's actually very comfortable underwater and easy to operate in terms of inlet and exhaust.  It's easy to imagine why the Navy used it for so long as it is simple in operation, supremely durable, and a reliable diving system.  Sure, you can't turn your helmet to look at things but there's lights on both sides!  It's a long trip to the water with 175lbs on your shoulders but once you get there it is sweet.  Oh, I got some GoPro footage as well!  Enjoy!

Soon to follow is another photo essay with some information about the Kirby Morgan Air hat and some other diving apparatus we got to try out.  Thanks for reading.  

Surface Supplied Diving: Emergency Procedures, Part II

Continued from Part I...

Though it's hard to know what challenges you'll face, training can increase the diver's confidence, skill level, and safety.

Now imagine for a moment you've not necessarily only lost your air source and flow to the hat but you have instead lost the hat!  You're screwed, right?  Not necessarily.  The pneumo hose which as previously mentioned allows the diver to shoot some air up into the void of the hat in the event of a primary gas failure can also serve as an air source all by itself.  This completely sucks... There's no two ways of looking at it.  The concept of ditching a hat deep underwater and slurping bubbles all the way up is not attractive as a concept and let me tell you from experience it is no song and dance in practical usage either.

Off we go!  

Our instructor asked us to descend the ladder on one of our training tanks with no hat, no scuba tank, no regulator, no easy button, basically nothing, and slurp bubbles from the pneumo as we blindly made a walk around the circumference of the training tank.  When it was my turn, I prepared to submerge my head as the pneumo hose was fired up and mine was instantly a world of bubbles.  Our instructor had shown us how we could more or less cup our hand around our mouths and the tip of the hose to get as much air and as little water as possible.

It works.  It really does.  But it will not be your favorite.  I learned quickly that you can't see anyway with the water in your eyes and the bubbles and so I might as well close my eyes.  Also, I made piece with the idea of swallowing a little bit of water.  It's hard not to.  With that done I just sort of lumbered around the tank with my free hand feeling the wall until I got all the way around the circle and back to the life giving ladder.  It's hard to imagine using this technique in a real emergency but it is yet another option and each option we learn markedly increases my confidence.

We've done a fair bit of diving thus far with the band mask.  They are a nice, lower cost option and very easy and comfortable to use.  I even have a stupid picture of myself wearing one and doing the running man which I'll make sure makes its way into this post.  To add yet another imaginary and shitty set of circumstances to overcome, I suggest the idea of a failed band mask.  Imagine you're underwater wearing your band mask, working, and just doing your thing when all of the sudden it fills with water and won't clear no matter how much air you shoot into it with the steady flow.  Now imagine you have a bud standing nearby on the ocean floor holding a band mask.  If you can handle all that, imagine you felt compelled to ditch your mask and put on his extra!  I feel like I've said this too many times but it can be done and it's about as much fun as farting loudly in a job interview.

I don't always wear a band mask, but when I do... Running man!  

When you ditch your filled, broken, no-longer-useful  mask and prepare to don the other you realize it's a lot harder to put on underwater when you can't breathe.  It's also a pickle to clear the mask with its relatively large internal air space but waiting patiently while holding your breath is something the class and I have become pretty handy at.  It was a good experience and a sure confidence builder.

Remember, you'd always rather just breath through the regulator...

Though some of these techniques are pretty unsavory, they serve to teach the diver to be extremely confident in the use and options associated with their life support equipment.  Overcoming these obstacles also vastly improves the diver's comfort in the water and ability to shut off the panic response inherent to human beings underwater.  While I dreaded these exercises at first, I look back at them fondly and and thankful for the top notch instruction I'm receiving in the coolest community college program you can find.  I also feel a hell of a lot less likely to freak out underwater and shorten my life on accident, no matter what happens.  It's a nice feeling.

Surface Supplied Diving: Emergency Procedures, Part I

The absolutely bitching, somewhat new Kirby Morgan KM97 stainless steel hat with the new 455 regulator.  Note the twisted umbilical and the pneumo hose, which is blue.  

Though a variety of arguments can be made for the level of safety in SCUBA diving and surface supplied diving, there is an inherent risk associated with any activity which takes place in a medium wherein the human being cannot survive without mechanical intervention.  For example, the astronaut is toast (or frozen) without his suit outside the Earth's atmosphere and the high altitude pilot, though in air, does not have a high enough partial pressure of oxygen to support life.

In these circumstances familiarity and comfort with one's life support equipment is essential and can mark the boundary between life and death.  In recent weeks my class and I have been trained in some of the essentials of emergency management while diving hard hats and I'll detail what it was like, at least for me!

The intelligent surface supplied diver uses safe, trustworthy equipment they've checked out themselves and understands they have to completely trust topside as their link to breathing gas.  With that being said, the proverbial shit can and does hit the fan.  A good diver prepares for the worst by simulating emergencies and creating muscle memory for problem solving processes which may aid them even when they're running out of air in a zero visibility environment.  A good diver also realizes they play a major role in their safety and whether or not they survive when the worst takes place.  The ability to think clearly in an adverse situation and to stave off panic is an essential skill for a safe diver.

Not a terribly related photo... but a cool one!  And it's of me!  

The out of air emergency is the prevailing concern for the surface supplied diver.  The diver often acts without solid communication with topside and has no choice but to trust the compressor or alternate gas sources above.  99.99% of the time, this is no problem.  However, when the air goes out and breathing becomes labored, the diver has some choices.  For the purposes of this article I'm going to stick to what the diver can do when screwed by the laws of probability.  I'll comment on topsides corrective actions in another post.

The first and best option is the bailout bottle which law dictates the diver must wear on his back.  This provides a secondary air source located with the diver wherever he is.  Even if the diver's umbilical is severed, he can still use whatever pressure he has in his bailout bottle.  The bailout is simply activated by turn a knob on the right side of the diving hat or switching the bailout bottle on by reaching back and turning the knob on the tank valve itself.  However, guidelines state the diver only needs to have enough air on their back for four minutes of breathing at a given working depth.  It's better than nothing but is not a heck of a long time to problem solve and most people on the edge of panic are breathing pretty hard.  We've been practicing this skill a lot.  It's as easy as it sounds.  The second I feel like I'm trying harder to pull air through the regulator I just reach up, turn the knob and breath the sweet, delicious, life giving air I was missing.  Then you inform topside you're on bailout and immediately start yelling at them with the most colorful language you can come up with.

The bubbles all up in my grill are coming from the impact wrench but very much resemble the volume you get out of the pneumo hose.  

Let's say for some reason topside can't supply the diver and air and the bailout bottle is quickly emptying.  There are typically two members of the four part umbilical capable of carrying breathing gas.  One is the main supply hose connected to the diver's hat and the other is the pneomofathometer hose used for determining the diver's depth.  Typically, when there is a gas supply issue, topside will turn on everything meaning they will send air to the diver by all available means to give their guy the largest variety of options.  This means the pneumo hose will already be shooting bubbles everywhere and these are bubbles you can use!  The diver can take the end of the pneumo hose (often cut at an angle for exactly this purpose) and slip it between their neck and the neck dam to send that air up into their hat.  It's not a perfect situation and would probably be loud and uncomfortable, but it beats drowning.

I'll go into some of the other (more death defying) life preserving techniques we learned in a post to follow... My first two part post!

Finally, Surface Supplied Diving

At the end of my first set of classes in diving school, I was exhausted.  The transition from dedicated military member to full time bike shop (not another bike shop!!) employee to full time student while planning for and getting married made for a hugely positive though taxing six month period.  My passion drove me to diving and dive school but I was perhaps a little bit unprepared for the actual work load associated with the program.  Although weary, at the end of the first eight week set of classes I finally felt like I understood the expectations, teaching/learning style, and climate of the program.  I'd also overcome a number of challenges and massively increased my confidence and comfort in the water.

The program was largely classroom centered in the beginning.  It's clear the instructors want to remove by attrition as many students as possible who aren't taking the subject matter, homework, and studying seriously.  The first set of finals saw many of my classmates fail and the average class sizes shrink.  Those left were excited because we knew we'd passed a critical juncture and made it far enough to start doing what we joined the program to do, hard hat diving.

Scuba diving is great.  I personally enjoy it immensely.  It offers many advantages over the surface-fed diver such as total autonomy, less restricted movement, and a lighter gear load.  However, for commercial work the scuba diver is almost never used.  This is because a diver on scuba has a very limited air supply, limited communication with topside, and few options in an emergency situation.  The hard hat diver, in contrast, has an 'unlimited' air supply, safe and easy communications with their tender, and can always be hauled up by their umbilical in the event of a shit to fan event.

A a student I was very ready to begin hat diving.  I feel like it separates and distinguishes one as a type of "real" diver and my interest has always been to go down to do work and solve problems and less so to see fish and take pictures.  To each his or her own.

Our first hat was the classic, trustworthy KM37.  Gearing up took some time.  The diver goes down with a pretty serious harness, a lot of weight (to counteract the air filled hat), and the very important water tight seal creating neck dam.  After jumping into what I can only describe as ill-fitting gear I put on the hat.  I am learning that considering my smaller stature I may need to customize/purchase some better fitting stuff.  The KM37 felt immediately heavy on my shoulders and I was anxious to relieve some of the weight by hitting the water in the scenic 10ft cylindrical tank which would act as my training ground.

Descending the ladder slowly, the water level rose over the regulator and face-port and a stream of bubbles reassured me of the reg's function.  I informed topside "diver leaving surface" as I'd been instructed and allowed myself to drift backwards off the ladder swallowing a few times to equalize.  This was a completely new diving experience.  I stood on the bottom, my weight belt keeping me just positively buoyant enough to walk on the bottom as one would on the surface.  After a few near effortless breaths the sensation of totally dry head started to set in.  This was the way to dive.  The diver, without concern for breathing gas supply or bottom time, is able to concentrate on his work and not the actual act of diving.  Around ten minutes later, my tender informed me over the comms my dive was over and to move the ladder.  After a slow climb up the ladder (at the Navy's recommended 30ft/min) I surfaced and once again felt the weight of the world on my shoulders.  I was excited to get back in.

The next dive was once again for the purpose of familiarization.  This time I was to dive the KM27 which is the smaller of the Kirby Morgan hats and I suspected would fit me a bit better and look less ridiculous.  With that in mind, I asked my classmates to abstain from taking pictures till this dive.  The hat felt better on, seemed to seal better, and made the experience even more enjoyable.  On this dive we even had the opportunity to start messing around with the "pipe puzzle" which although sounding like a late night HBO special is actually just a bunch of joints of pipe for us to wrench on.  And finally, for the first time in BottomTimer.com history, there are pictures of my actual experiences to follow.  No more lousy google-stolen photos!  At least not until the next post!

The last few weeks have been more and more orientation dives on different demand style hats, all from Kirby Morgan.  We've also been doing a bunch of emergency drills which I will detail in a following post.  Finally, I feel like I'm doing what I came here to do and getting ever closer to becoming a commercial diver.  Here's some pictures of me in the KM27 as well as the KM18B, known as the band-mask.  It's basically just the front of the full diving helmet with a neoprene hood and rubber straps to seal it to the diver's face.  It makes for a less high maintenance, lower cost diving alternative.  Anyway, enjoy the cell phone shots... I'm wearing the blue hat in the first bunch.

Final Exam on the Channel Islands

Anacapa Island, of the Channel Islands, sits about 11 miles from nearest shore off the coast of Southern California.  From a distance, it sits like a pointy brown rock alongside its island neighbors.  Topside, there isn't much to see.  Dense vegetation cascading over steep, jagged cliffs and a lighthouse built in 1932 are pretty much the only attractions.  In stark contrast, the undersea world near Anacapa could hardly be more vibrant and alive.  This has made Anacapa and the Channel Islands in general a hotspot for Southern California scuba divers for as long as there have been scuba divers.  Lucky for me, it was also the location of my Advanced Scuba Techniques class final, our first "deep" dive.

My class showed up bright and early (more like dark and early) in Ventura Harbor and loaded the Spectre dive boat with all of our gear.  Soon, we were underway for an approximately 90 minute cruise out to the dive site.  In the meantime, the boat served some pretty solid breakfast burritos.  Our plan was to make a dive to 120ft with particular attention to our buoyancy, air consumption, and descent/ascent rates.  It was to serve as a final test for a class in which we have been put through the ringer of scuba diving techniques.  I was excited.

Arriving on the dive site, we were met with incredible conditions.  Negligible seas and what appeared to be incredible visibility had students racing into their gear as the boat crew set two anchors.  After an in depth safety brief a group of 8 along with our instructor splashed and headed down.  I'd never done a dive deeper than about 50ft before and was expecting to suffer nitrogen narcosis, feel the effects of pressure, and to generally have a harder time.  As we descended our down-line, I couldn't help but feel like it was easy.  My ears equalized easily and quickly (thank God) which made for a fairly rapid descent with our instructor shepherding us every inch of the way.

On the bottom my depth gauge had us at exactly 120ft.  The visibility was easily 75ft and the water was surprisingly warm (though un-hottub-like).  For whatever reason, my head felt clear and though others later noted they felt narced I felt pretty much myself. We had only 15 minutes for bottom time but still took the opportunity to have a swim around a nearby reef.  We saw lobsters, garibaldi, and some sheepsheads.  Our dive site being in a marine reserve the local wildlife seemed unafraid and interested as they didn't risk being impaled by an eager sea-hunter's spear.

Every glance at my submersible pressure gauge confirmed that I was consuming air very quickly.  We had to budget a good amount of air for the lengthy return journey to the surface along with a 5 minute precautionary stop.  We planned to really skirt the limits of our air supply and were constantly communicating our rapidly dwindling tank pressure to our instructor.

As our available breathing gas diminished our instructor led the group back up the down-line and at around 20ft we left the line for a safety bar which was also suspended from the Spectre's bow.  The safety bar was a length of pipe about 10ft long covered with surface fed regulators for us to breath from if our air got low on the trip to the surface.  When I reached the bar I had only 500psi remaining, the absolute minimum, and so my instructor handed me one of the regulators from the safety bar.  This allowed me to keep some air in the cylinder on my back for the final ascent.  After our 5 minute stop we swam around off the stern of the Spectre, surfaced, and awkwardly climbed onboard.

For my first deep dive, I can't complain.  We had perfect conditions at a breath taking dive site and my classmates and I made safe dives like the competent divers we're becoming.  After the Spectre's cook prepared a tasty BBQ lunch we were even able to take a fun dive.  Our fun dive was on a horseshoe shaped reef about 35ft deep and was also a memorable dive.

The rest of the week was all of our written and practical finals in physics, equipment, and rigging.  I studied hard and did well.  It's a relief get through the first round of finals and to truly feel like part of the diving program.  Soon enough, we'll be diving surface supplied gear (think hardhats) and I couldn't be more ready to get started.