It was our second visit to this wonderful museum and we always get a laugh and some new tidbit of information about one of our favorite subjects, diving! If you’ve never been, it’s definitely worth the trip and the 12$ adult entrance. The museum is well laid out taking you back to the 1500s with early attempts at diving and the various inventions that have come to be discovered. Risky business and surely many lost their lives trying to see the wonderful underwater world we’ve come to jump into so easily. From inverted bells and barrels to long snorkels (which surely would not have worked) you get a glimpse of some interesting history.
As you progress through the exhibits you see more modern equipment and one of the largest collections of brass helmets from around the world. We were actually amazed at how recently some of these had been used by the navy for deep exploration.
There was a new freediving exhibit setup to cater to this sport that is growing exponentially in popularity. During our visit they were also setting up a new underwater photography section. The latter was replacing the Spiegel Grove exhibition, a wreck we dove a couple of days prior.
The staff is super friendly and passionate about diving and about the museum too. They were raffling off tickets to go on one of the dives using one of those antique Mark V brass helmets, but with only one winner… what would we do? No need to start a fight!
Unfortunately we learned that the fish in the aquarium were victims of Hurricane Irma, but otherwise the History of Diving Museum made it through the storm with some roofing and flooring damage but is open for business.