AJ Morse & Son

10/02/2025

Another bit of AJMS history to add to the files. The Griffin Museum of Science & Industry has in their collection Morse Shallow Water Diving Helmet. It is an early one with the smaller faceplate. I'm going to reach out to them and see if it has a serial number.

Made by the Andrew J. Morse and Son Company, this sixty-two-pound diving helmet was intended for depths of less than forty feet. The company was founded in 1837 in Boston, Massachusetts, as a marine brassware-making company before making diving helmets and suits.

08/29/2025

Discover the stories of MK V divers in our new exhibit, “Behind the Faceplate,” now open! Introduced in 1916, the 200-pound MK V diving rig was the Navy’s standard deep sea diving system until the early 1980s. Generations of Navy divers shared the experience of diving the MK V, tackling the challenges of their eras with expertise and ingenuity.

“Behind the Faceplate” looks inside the iconic copper helmet to tell stories of MK V divers across the decades. Explore their remarkable feats as innovators, salvage experts, and leaders through historic artifacts, personal stories, and hands-on interactives.

08/29/2025

We wonder what Andrew Morse would have thought about an early 20th century helmet and air pump made by his company diving in the 21st century to celebrate the centennial of an event that changed the diving world.

08/22/2025

I had a reminder today to do my due diligence when working on a project. On Saturday LMCDO did demnostration dives at Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay. We were commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first mixed gas dives. We tried to use as much period correct gear as we could. We had AJMS four light commercial helmet 1769 which was made in 1911. We also has AJMS #3 air pump S/N 866 made in 1904. The pump got a complete overhaul (not a restoration) and she worked admirably. For our purpose she made plenty of air. One if the items I wanted to replace was the information card in the pump lid. I had the text and graphics from photos of a few cards. DESCO has a large format color laser printer that will print to 11" x 17". I don't know what the correct dimensions are supposed to be but I figured close enough. This week while putting things away I noticed a discrepancy on the card. It said a two cylinder pump. I have clear recollection of overhauling three cylinders so what gives. I went to the 1910 catalog and it shows a #3 pump with two cylinders. I began to doubt the identification tag on the pump but it looks like it has been there since day one. Since the pump is 1904 and I have a photocopy of the 1904 catalog I checked it. In 1904 the #3 air pump had three cylinders. Another thing was in 1904 Morse was on Congress street. In 1910 they were on High street. I pulled the old card out of the pump and am making a new card to replace it.

The moral of the story: Do the homework and you will only have to do the job once.

08/05/2025

Welcome home to the Kissel ladder truck. AJMS having been a manufacturer of firefighting equipment we wholly heartedly support preserving the history of this noble profession.

06/06/2025

Today we started teardown of AJMS #3 air pump 866. The thing about working on these old pumps is there isn't any repair manuals for them. You learn by doing. #866 was built in 1904 and she was due for an overhaul. The objective is to get her into working condition. The bigger plan is to use this pump at Sturgeon Bay in August. Time is passing fast and this is by far the most ambitious project connected with the SS Lakeland commemoration dives. If we are successful you can come to Door County Maritime Museum on Saturday August 16th and see #866 at work.

03/10/2025

Here is a link to the History of Diving Museum Facebook post of Jon Hazelbaker diving his restored 1916 A J Morse & Son Mark V helmet. I talked with Jon about all the air leaking from the rig. He told me the dress is brand new and on the next dive it had settled down and didn't leak. If you look close at the back of the helmet you will notice the air elbow on the left and comm elbow on the right. they both point downward like you see in the 1916 US Navy Diving Manual photo of 2178. You hardly ever see 1917 Mark V helmets but plenty of 1918 helmets. We had five in the shop atone time once. Two Morse and three Schrader. All the 1918 helmets had the conventional configuration.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1690176301567197

03/10/2025

Back in January we received a helmet from a long standing customer who wanted the helmet repaired. This particular helmet was an old A J Morse & Son Mark V which had been turned into a Frankenhelmet. The spitcock and original communication elbow had been removed. In place of the spitcock was a hardware store globe valve air control. Copper tubing was soldered to the ports on the valve then run into the cut off end of the original ductwork. The comm elbow was rigged with a compression fitting to hold a pass through cable. The owner wanted us to clean up the installations and make the helmet diveable. Something came to our attention which changed that plan.

Looking at the nametag this Mark V was serial number 2212 and dated 7-28-16. This was a summer of 1916 helmet somebody had hacked up. We thought wait a minute, this helmet has most of its original parts. The single spring eight point exhaust is still present, The faceplate and top & side windows look right. The air elbow is the Morse pass through type without rivets. we called the customer and told him we what he had and that it could be 95% restored. It would not have 1916 comms in it but real world that is a good thing for a helmet that will get wet. The comm elbow didn't cause a problem as the DESCO Stillson helmet uses the same Siebe Gorman clone they used in 1916. He chose to do the restoration. The helmet still had the telephone cup with the 1898 patent date stamped on it.

Here are the before photos. I will do another post with a link to a video of the helmet being dived in Florida last week. Somehow the helmet got shipped without us taking after shots. I will have to contact the customer and ask him to shoot some for us.

02/26/2025

Today we are pulling together the stuff we want to take to Ghost Ships this Friday. We did a bench layout to see what we can fit in the space alotted. Our commercial diver jake "Lee" will be going. People love taking selfies with him.

We will be exhibiting a Viking ProTech dry suit and some parts. DESCO is an importing dealer for Ansell Viking.

This will be the coming out for AJMS 1769. If you don't know the story here is a thumbnail. We received AJMS four light commercial #1769 in partial payment for a helmet chest. She was in bad shape with the bonnet shell collapsing and cracking. we had been trying to think of ways to keep Lake Michigan Classic Diving Org. in peoples minds while we search for a dive site. Last spring we held a workshop and let attendees tear into the helmet and get her down to component parts. After some DESCO magic we opened the shop again and had attendees do some reassembly work. Since the intention is to have 1769 returned to a diveable condition the DESCO crew finished her up. I think anybody would be proud to have this helmet in their collection. 1769 will be staying with us as part of the company museum collection and a a LMCDO rally helmet. We estimate this helmet was built in 1911.

Some people may claim it was blasphemy to rebuild a century old helmet. The condition of the bonnet shell made the helmet dangerous to display. There was jagged Copper in several places. Every useable piece of the helmet is on the new bonnet shell.

We need to give credit to those persons who came out to the workshops and put in the work to help bring 1769 back to her glory. Each one of you has a place in her history. We want to have more of these types of activities to give folks the chance to learn the gear and test their own capabilities.

02/21/2025

Last week we received a request for information on an old A J Morse & Son Three Light Commercial Helmet. Often times with the records being so incomplete we can be of little assistance. This time was markedly different.

Meet helmet 3376. The record book is fairly bursting with information on this helmet.

On 3/1/32 the helmet was sold to Mr. J W Clemente of Memphis Tennessee.

The helmet had found its way back home and on 2/1/33 Morse sold it to Mr. Charlese Garifales of 36 Brown Street Fairhaven Massachusetts in a cash sale. The helmet was again returned to Morse by Mr. Garifales and was resold on 6/7/34 to The International Grenfell Association. It turns out the father of the current owner was a physician for the IGA working in their hospital in St Anthony in the 1950s. His father was gifted the helmet. The owner told me that it was used for dock and harbor maintenance in St Anthony. I told the owner I thought the brown staining on the helmet was likely from crude or bunker oil. he said that would have fit in with working in St Anthony harbor. The IGA still exists today. They began as a group bringing medical and spiritual services to commercial fishermen in Newfoundland and Labrador. The medical part was turned over to the Canadian government but they continue social and community outreach. The owner is donating the helmet to the IGA museum in St Anthony NF.

It is rare to get any backstory on old helmets. This one really delivered.

12/16/2024

Time for an update on 4LC 1769. The bonnet is completely rebuilt. It just needs to be cleaned up. The breastplate has been buffed and the tag needs to go back on. It happens we are building a new 4LC #6933 right next to 1769. Their birthdays are only 114 years apart.
6933 is being made for stock so it is going to need a home. 1769 will be a primary dive helmet when LMCDO gets back into diving events. Who will volunteer to dive a century old rebuilt diving helmet? DESCO would prefer not to take helmets from inventory for rallies. If we can build a collection of diveable helmets dedicated to event diving that is preferable. We may need to find a cheap beat up Mark V to overhaul for a rally helmet. That would give LMCDO an opportunity to hold more shop classes.

I included a couple of photos of the bonnet as it was in case there are newcomers to this story.