Deepwater Diving Helmet Font & MCDOA Helmet at HMS EXCELLENT
Background
2 Oct 2022 - This photo shows a multiple christening group outside St Adjutor's Chapel in HMS VERNON circa 1964. PO(CD2) Pete Lumbis is standing next to the Padre in the back row and CPO(CD1) Ernie Foggin BEM is on the extreme right next to PO(CD2) Ted Shennan. CPO(CD1) Hoppy Hopewell BEM is the shorter man holding the boy and FCPO(D) Mona Lott BEM is squatting with his son Andrew, his wife and his eldest daughter Karen. The person third from the left (above the baby’s head) in the back row is believed to be the late CPO(CD1) Norman Slingsby..
The children were christened in a glass bowl of water sitting in the inverted diving helmet mounted on a stand.
When the Revd Trevor Lynn joined HMS VERNON in 1973 as a green young chaplain for the first of his two tenures, he was told he would be expected to conduct baptisms in a diving helmet. “However will people hear me?" he asked.
Some time later, Trevor was photographed in the mining trials tank wearing full 'standard' diving dress complete with taped-on dog collar and crucifix.
The helmet’s current whereabouts
MCDOA Chairman Martin Mackey, Superintendent of Defence Diving, has kindly tracked down HMS VERNON's diving helmet font, now residing in St Barbara's church at HMS EXCELLENT, and supplied these photos.
Accompanying brass tallies are engraved with the many familiar names of naval divers' children (including all three of mine) who were christened in a glass bowl in the inverted helmet. Of note, the last recorded christening took place on 2 October 1994.
According to the Revd Mike Brotherton, he christened some divers’ children in the helmet in St Ann’s church in Portsmouth Naval Base in the early 1990s before it was transferred to St Barbara’s church on Whale Island where it has resided in some obscurity. Since I published these photos on Facebook, several divers, including MCDOA committee member Graham ‘Tug’ Wilson MBE and Paul Guiver BEM, have contacted the chaplain at HMS EXCELLENT to have their children’s names added to the tallies. Several other divers have expressed an interest in having their children’s names added, too. The Naval Chaplaincy Team in HMS Nelson and HM Naval Base Portsmouth can be contacted on 023 9272 3000 or by email.
The origin of ‘Deepwater’
The christenings were originally called ‘Deepwater Baptisms’ because HMS DEEPWATER was the name given to the former German torpedo trials ship and seaplane carrier WALTER HOLTZAPFEL, a war prize used briefly as HMS VERNON’s deep diving tender.
In March 1946, DEEPWATER became the floating diving school alongside Maintenance Jetty at HMS VERNON.
She finally paid off in 1960.
'Deepwater' continued thereafter as the name of the divers' division at HMS VERNON until its decommissioning as an independent establishment in 1986 although the site continued its training role until finally closing in 1996. A ‘Deepwater’ building at Horsea Island carries the name forward.
MCDOA helmet presented to the Wardroom of HMS EXCELLENT
Martin has also taken photos of a different diving helmet presented to the wardroom of HMS EXCELLENT by the Minewarfare & Clearance Diving Officers' Association in November 1997.
