Historical Diving Society Finland has gathered a reasonable collection of historical diving gear since it was founded. The collection was last displayed in its entirety ten years ago. Smaller exhibitions have been organized since, e.g. in connection with annual Diving Day events. For the past few years, the collection has mostly adored warehouses though. The storage location has not been permanent either, but goods have had to be transported from one place under threat of demolition to another.
Last summer, the association had the opportunity to build a permanent exhibition in Lohja, in the premises of the Luksia vocational school and their commercial diving school. The opportunity was seized. Three truckloads of inventory were transferred from the last warehouse to a facility on the shore of the Ojamo mine pond (a fabulous mine diving site) in Lohja. During the autumn of 2024, Finland’s first permanent exhibition on the history of diving was built here.
The site is significant in terms of diving. Luksia’s professional diving training has been operating in the same area for 30 years.
The place has been named Diving History Center “Casque”. Casque is both French and Old English and means helmet. In Finland the divers of old have thus called the standard diving dress helmet a “kaski”, which would have been a useful name. Kaski actually means a slash-and-burn (a method of agriculture) field, a term luckily no longer in active use. There is another reason however, why kaski really does not confer the idea of a helmet anymore in contemporary Finland. We have Kaski branded vodka, and even beer. Thus we will keep the French sounding name. The name Casque will hopefully make people curious about its meaning. To a foreigner, the word might be more telling.
The exhibition is located on the second floor of the building in the left picture. The open door in the middle is the entrance to the exhibition. Opposite to the building, on the other shore of the Ojamo mine pond, there is Meriturva, a sea safety training center. The building is in a fenced and controlled area.
The space of the Diving History Centre is sufficient for its purpose. The former classroom is about six metres wide and 12 metres long.
The space has 14 display cabinets for small items. Four pumps and a movable pressure chamber are the largest targets.
All aspects of diving are represented in the exhibition. The main focus however is on the history of professional diving. The rear of the space is the most important area for professional diving.
This photo shows about half of our full face mask collection as well as double hose regulator setups.
Photo: Mikko Salo
The compound has two movable hyperbaric chambers, one of which is housed in the exhibition.
The association has some literature and magazines. More will be accepted. In particular, it would be good to have diving clubs’ own publications.
“The diving fellow Öhman”, who has often participated in events organized by us, is now in a well-deserved retirement place. No more traveling! It needs to be told, that the widow of commercial diver Öhman donated his diving dress to us in the hopes of it, and his memory, beeing preserved.
The exhibition is structurally complete. During the spring of 2025, by the beginning of May, all the “fixes” will be made. The exhibition will then be made available for visitors.
Next summer, the exhibition will be open to visitors. These will be announced on the association’s website during the spring. You could perhaps say that “It’s worth coming from further afield”!