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Naval Undersea Museum: Working underwater (photo diary) [1]

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Date: 2023-05-15

One of the challenges facing divers is that breathing compressed air below depths of 165 feet can cause nitrogen narcosis which impairs the diver’s judgement and awareness and thus endangers both the diver and the diving operation. The solution to this challenge emerged in the 1930s when NEDU developed and perfected a new breathing gas mixture using helium. According to the Museum:

“Breathing helium-oxygen made deep-sea diving safer and let divers dive deeper. Today using helium is standard Navy practice for surface-supplied dives to 190 feet or greater.”

Shown above is a Mark V Helium Helmet.

According to the Museum:

“The distinctive banana-shaped assembly chemically absorbs exhaled carbon dioxide, allowing the helium to be reused.”

Shown above is NOMOADS (Navy One-Man One-Atmosphere Diving System), the first atmospheric diving suit developed by the U.S. Navy.

According to the Museum:

“An atmospheric diving suit maintains surface pressure internally, which protects the diver inside from deep-ocean pressure and eliminates the need for decompression. A diver operating NOMOADS could work as deep as 2,000 feet for 40 hours. Today the Navy uses modern atmospheric diving suits for salvage operations and ocean exploration.”

Another view of NOMOADS

Shown above is a Mark 11 Rebreather.

The back of the Mark 11

Shown above is a Mark 15 Rebreather.

The back of the Mark 15

Shown above is a wet suit.

According to the Museum:

“Post World War II, NEDU faced the challenge of keeping divers warm. Staff repurposed an aviator’s neoprene exposure suit, which had its tester perspiring 1.5 hours into a cold dive. Through additional experimentation, NEDU tsted neoprene thickness and overall design to maximize thermal and physical protection.”

Shown above is a hot water suit.

According to the Museum:

“Thermal protection is especially critical at greater depths (water becomes cold with depth), when breathing helium (which draws warmth from the diver’s body), or during saturation dives (which last several hours at deep depths). Hot water suits manually bathe divers in hot water from the surface, keeping them toasty warm.”

Shown above is a Jack Browne Mask, a lightweight mask for shallow water diving from World War II through the late 1970s.

Shown above is a Mark 1 Mask, a lightweight mask which supported both air and mixed gas operations. It could be used to a depth of 300 feet and provided voice communications.

Shown above is a Mark 12 Surface-Supplied Diving Helmet. A surface-supplied diving system provides breathing air to a diver through an umbilical (hose) connected to control equipment on the surface. The Mark 12 was adopted in 1985.

Another view of the Mark 12

Another view of the Mark 12

Shown above is the Mark 21 Helmet which replaced the Mark 12 in 1993.

Another view of the Mark 21

Another view of the Mark 21

Shown above is an automatic diving decompression meter.

Shown above is a Cable-Controlled Underwater Recovery Vehicle (CURV) III.

Another view of CURV III.

Another view of CURV III.

More museum exhibits

Naval Undersea Museum: Diversity and change in U.S. Navy submarines (museum tour)

Naval Destroyer Museum: On the deck of the Turner Joy (photo diary)

Lewis Army Museum: Half-Tracks (photo diary)

Lake Chelan Historical Society: Homestead Cabin (photo diary)

Campbell House: The kitchen (photo diary)

Museums 101: Interactive Robots (Photo Diary)

Museums 101: Under the Arctic (Photo Diary)

Carillon Historical Park: Transportation Center (photo diary)

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/15/2169163/-Naval-Undersea-Museum-Working-underwater-photo-diary

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