Diving Deep

An old-fashioned, 1912 diving helmet hit the water for the first time in decades last summer. Divers Scott Kuesel of Glendale and Peter Scotland of Bay View couldn’t resist the opportunity to try out a helmet once owned by local legend Max Nohl.

Nohl briefly held the world record for deepest dive and helped develop equipment and techniques still used today. As a high school student, Kuesel was on the crew of Nohl’s 1957 attempt to raise a sunken ship from the floor of Lake Michigan. Years later, after Nohl’s death in a car accident, Kuesel bought Nohl’s old helmet from a Milwaukee secondhand shop for $35.

Last August, Kuesel and Scotland took the helmet for a dive at South Shore Beach. They waded out from shore, taking turns using Scotland’s 150 feet of air hose, and didn’t venture deeper than 6 feet.

But before trusting their safety to Nohl’s helmet, they had DESCO Corp. check it out Ð another tie to Nohl’s history, since he was one of the company’s first employees in 1937. Today, the Third Ward-based business is the only U.S. manufacturer of old-style metal diving helmets – including the Mark V, similar to Nohl’s.

Nowadays, most divers use lighter fiberglass helmets, but the more durable metal helmets still have fans. DESCO’s six employees produce hundreds of helmets a year, a far cry from the thousands turned out by 150 workers during World War II, but still a steady business. A new Mark V helmet costs $5,280, but most customers prefer the lighter, more versatile DESCO Air Hat.

Kuesel says the dive brought back fond memories of his summer with Max Nohl. The crew plans to use Nohl’s helmet again this summer and possibly some other antiques owned by DESCO. “Everyone wants to try the helmet,” Scotland says.