The world’s oldest surviving diving suit, dating back to the early 1700s, is famously known as the ‘Old Gentlemen of Raahe.’ This ancient diving gear found its place in the Raahe Museum in Finland during the 1860s, donated by a captain of that era.
Crafted mainly from cow leather, this unique suit was meticulously assembled with waxed thread-sewn seams, sealed using pitch, and waterproofed with a blend of pork fat, tar, and additional pitch. The suit’s distinctive hood, reinforced internally by a wooden framework, featured an opening for a wooden air pipe.
To don the suit, a diver would squeeze into it through a frontal opening, closing the sealed mouthpiece by pressing it together and securing it with a belt. Wooden pipes connected with leather provided air, either through a piston pump or bellows, with the exhaust exiting through a shorter pipe on the back. However, due to its limited watertightness and inability to withstand high pressure, diving sessions were brief.
