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.  

 

Vintage US Navy SEALAB Videos Worth Watching... Vintage Dive Watch Content.

A common overlap in the world of collecting is a fondness for vintage diving watches and a fondness for the era of diving when those watches were essential tools and not the fashion accessories for the cafe going, craft beer sipping collectors which they have unfortunately become.  We're talking about the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, its military cousin the Tornek-Rayville, the Rolex Submariner, and eventually, the Rolex Sea-Dweller.  In few cases were these watches more essential than in operation with the world's navies.  

In military use, these watches saw a level of day in, day out ass kicking which is difficult to fully comprehend and their continued operation as diving tools is evidence of the extreme build quality of the watches.  The US Navy's SEALAB experiments, part of the Man-in-the-Sea program, which lasted from 1964 till their tragic end in 1969, proved the legitimacy of deep water saturation diving.  Of course, all of that diving required some high quality time pieces which make these SEALAB pictures and videos all the more awesome.

The Navy looks to have done all of their own recording and production on these classic, very vintage looking videos and the watch spotting is second to none.  I'll throw in some awesome photos after the videos.  Thanks for reading.

Here are the US Navy documentaries for SEALAB I, II, and III.

And here are some photos which I think are ridiculously cool.  Not the use of the Submarine along with a wrist mounted compass by almost every diver.  

Robert Barth, now retired USN Bos'n, wearing a Rolex Submariner.  If you don't know who this guy is, you're blowing it.  

USN Commander Malcolm Scott Carpenter (1925-2013) was an Mercury astronaut as well as a SEALAB aquanaut having been involved in both SEALAB II and III.  During SEALAB II, Carpenter spent 30 days in the undersea habitat before decompressing and surfacing.  He also sports the venerable Rolex Submariner.  

They came up with pretty cool uniforms for SEALAB.  The issue watches weren't too bad either.  

Very few have dived harder or longer than these guys.  It's a shame that the SEALAB program was almost completely overshadowed by NASA's space exploration as it was in many ways equally dangerous and ground (water?) breaking.  

Robot Divers of the Future! (and present, and some of the past)

ROVs, or remotely operated vehicles, handle much subsea business.    

Ok.  The title is a little bit misleading.  What I'm talking about here are ROVs or remotely operated vehicles.  I should begin by saying that as a lowly student of commercial diving I am not yet anywhere near an expert in the classification or operation of ROVs and am not yet even super familiar with them.  However, they're interesting, awesome (undersea robots?) and a very big part of the diving industry which gets very little limelight.

An ROV keeps a watchful eye on a diver preparing to land a huge clamp.  

These surface tethered underwater machines have, since the 1980s, performed a variety of tasks both in addition to and in place of divers.  ROVs come in a plethora of sizes (from shoebox size to small car size) and with a list of capabilities as varied as their applications.  The ROV, like the surface supplied diver, depends totally on their tether to the surface and the trained pilot operating it topside.  They can be powered electrically or with hydraulics or some combination of the two.  From actual work such as cutting, blasting, building, or construction to observation for science, military use, or industrial inspection, ROVs have certainly taken a share of the work traditionally done by divers.  This is both good and bad.

Like a diver, the ROV is a little awkward out of the water...

MBARI's Ventana ROV allows for scientific exploration in waters far too deep for diving.

On one hand, ROVs can often be used in situations too hazardous or arduous for divers like extreme depths, super cold water, contaminated waters, around dangerous objects, you get the idea.  Also, once you've bought the ROV, you own it.  Despite maintenance costs, you or your company are probably still coming out ahead using the deepsea robot considering you're not paying through the roof to insure your divers.  Perhaps more importantly, they can't complain, don't get bent, and never get paid overtime, and require no decompression.  Though some ROVs are incredibly expensive, you can see the benefits over time from a business point of view.

Teamwork makes the dream work.  

However, in situations requiring human dexterity, decision making, and technique, divers rule and always will.  Often times in these situations the diver will work in tandem with an ROV.  The ROV provides assistance by giving an alternate viewpoint to the topside supervisor by way of HD video.  In fact, on most dives of marked importance there will be a ROV observing the diver allowing topside to provide them with greater support and advisement.

Oh you know, just doing some science.  

I have written this article largely as a vehicle to have a bunch of ROV pictures.  So enjoy that.  Also, if you like the idea of putting your super badass deepsea watch on an ROV in order to test its ridiculous water resistance rating, I've covered it.  Look here.