Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Australia: Turnbull etc

[David Wilson]

Onwards to a further series of Turnbull diving masks. Let's begin where we left off last time and have a look at Turnbull's two "Sea Raider Professional Masks" with the stock codes M6a and M6b.

M6a Sea Raider Professional Mask
This model came without an illustration in the Turnbull catalogue. So just the caption: "In green rubber. Oval shape. Wide strap, flared feather edge for comfortable face fitting, fitted with SAFETY glass lens with rustproof buckles and wide metal rustproof lens retaining band. Not illustrated."

M6b Sea Raider Professional Mask

The catalogue caption: "M6b Sea Raider Professional Mask. In green rubber. Triangular shape. Wide strap, flared featheredge for comfortable face fitting, fitted with SAFETY glass lens with rustproof buckles and wide metal rustproof lens retaining band."

The adjective "professional" suggests a higher-quality product with more advanced features, which include in this case a split strap and a stainless-steel lens retaining band with a top screw. However, I came across in the August/September 1961 issue of Australian Skin Divers Magazine an ad for a new Turnbull product, the "M6 Searaider Professional Mask", presumably a predecessor of the M6b with the buckle behind the head instead of a split strap with buckles on either side of the mask body.

 

[David Wilson]

On to the next in the series.

M7 Deluxe Mask

Caption: "M7 Deluxe Mask. In blue rubber with a flared feather edge for comfortable face fitting and wide strap, SAFETY glass wide vision lens, rustproof buckles and wide metal rustproof lens retaining band."

"Deluxe" suggested a product quality even superior to "professional". The basic Turnbull branding is all there, including the ubiquitous "TOP" on the front to remind the user which way up the mask should be worn. The mask's most distinctive feature is the rubber cradle at the back of the strap. However, the circa-1960 images of the Turnbull Deluxe mask in the online vintage diving gear gallery at the Australian National Maritime Museum come with a much plainer head strap:

The three diving mask pictures above appear in the papers and photographs relating to the naval service of Leading Seaman Wilfred William Boshier, RN, RAN 1912 - 1945 posted at Results | Advanced Search Objects | The Collection | Australian National Maritime Museum.

 

[David Wilson]

Three more Turnbull diving masks to go.

M8 Aqua Mask

Catalogue caption: "M8 Aqua Mask. In blue rubber, with SAFETY glass lens, rustproof buckles and flared feather edge for comfortable face fitting."

So another oval diving mask in the series with a better-quality lens but a strap buckle at the rear of the head, not very different from the M5a Sea Raider mask, which was also available in blue rubber.

Here's an image of an oval Turnbull diving mask in green rubber whose identity I have so far been unable to determine definitively:

 

[David Wilson]

Here's today's penultimate Turnbull diving mask.

M9 Equaliser Mask

Caption: "M9 Equaliser Mask. In black rubber with simple efficient equalising of pressure, individually boxed; fitted with rustproof buckles and wide metal rustproof lens retaining band with SAFETY glass wide vision lens."

This appears to be Turnbull's only model with compensator bosses for nostril-pinching and ear-clearing. As with the M6 Sea Raider, we have a predecessor for the M9 Equaliser, which first appeared in the Australian Skin Diver Magazine issue of August/September 1961:

Note the distinctive Turnbull triangularity. By the November 1967 issue, however, the M9 had adopted an oval shape:

 

[David Wilson]

And now we come to the final Turnbull diving mask.

M11 Frogman Mask

Catalogue caption: "M11 Frogman Mask. In blue and green rubber, this junior size mask is fitted with a plastic lens and rustproof buckles." So a young person's mask, not very different from the M3 Swim Mask we reviewed earlier:

That's all, folks, for the moment. I'll be back in a few days' time to review Turnbull's snorkel range.

 

[David Wilson]

On to the Turnbull range of breathing tubes: four models in all, minimalistically numbered S1, S2, S3 and S4.

S1 Snorkel

The image above appears in the online vintage diving gear gallery at the Australian National Maritime Museum, where it oios captioned "Gift from New South Wales Abalone Co-operative Society Ltd" and dated "before 1988". The exhibit and its description can be found at at Snorkel | Works | The Collection | Australian National Maritime Museum. But first a cautionary note. There is no S1 snorkel in the scan of the Turnbull catalogue I have posted at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bw7z_4bLjOOEcVVBT09INkJqNEU. Logic tells me, though, that the S1 was likely to have been a plain snorkel with a U-bend and without a valve considering the features of the alternative snorkels in the Turnbull range. In further support of this hypothesis, I present an advertisement from page 4 of the 1956 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Programme:

My thesis is that the S1 would have resembled the first snorkel of the four in the range at the bottom left of this ad because the other three resemble the S2, S3 and S4 snorkels I am reviewing today. Unless anybody knows different...

And by way of additional evidence, see the extract below from an Australian See Bee brochure, where the Turnbull snorkels seem to have received a different numbering system while retaining the same range of shapes:

 

[David Wilson]

Let's move on to Turnbull's S2 model of breathing tube.

S2 Snorkel

This model does appear in the Turnbull catalogue, captioned thus: "S2 Snorkel. This snorkel is fitted with either a PLASTIC or RUBBER mouthpiece. It is designed to permit users to observe underwater activities without lifting their head to breathe and is fitted with a mask-retaining band to be attached to the mask strap. The mouthpiece must be fitted completely into the mouth with the knobs gripped between the teeth."

Quite a detailed description. Interesting, though, that no reference is made to the device at the top of the snorkel barrel. Here's a 1954 picture showing air being expelled from the top of a similar snorkel (The Typhoon T1, made in England) while the swimmer is under water:

The device is variously called a "cap valve" or a "splash guard", but nowhere have I found a detailed explanation of this device or its mechanics. Does anybody have any suggestions?

 

[David Wilson]

The Turnbull S1 and S2 snorkels came with a traditional J-shaped barrel, while the distinctive feature of the diving equipment manufacturer's S3 and S4 models was an S-shaped configuration.

S3 Snorkel

In the catalogue, the S3 comes with the same caption as the S2: "S3 Snorkel. This snorkel is fitted with either a PLASTIC or RUBBER mouthpiece. It is designed to permit users to observe underwater activities without lifting their head to breathe and is fitted with a mask-retaining band to be attached to the mask strap. The mouthpiece must be fitted completely into the mouth with the knobs gripped between the teeth."

The following may be another image of the S3, but I don't recall where I found it so I can't be more certain about the identity of the item illustrated:

Interesting, though, that the colours of the barrel and the mouthpiece resemble those of a snorkel I claimed earlier might be a Turnbull S1 breathing tube:

The S3 is certainly an unusual design. The "S"-shape is normally associated with breathing tubes featuring a ball valve at the supply end, while the S3 is open-ended at the top. However, this design is not unique. The Carriers have one among the snorkels illustrated in the 1955 edition of their seminal work Dive:

It's the third from the left on the top row. Then there's the display of "pipe snorkels" in Albert VanderKogel's Underwater Sport (also 1955):

The S-shaped snorkel without a ball valve can be seen in the middle of the top row.

 

[David Wilson]

Last but not least, we come to the Turnbull S4 snorkel with its S-shaped barrel and ball valve.

S4 Snorkel

Same catalogue caption: "S4 Snorkel. This snorkel is fitted with either a PLASTIC or RUBBER mouthpiece and a rubber and plastic ball valve fitting. It is designed to permit users to observe underwater activities without lifting their head to breathe and is fitted with a mask-retaining band to be attached to the mask strap. The mouthpiece must be fitted completely into the mouth with the knobs gripped between the teeth."

The following may be another image of the S4:

If so, it generated a piece of Australian parliamentary history:

Snorkel described as lethal in Australian Parliament

Ping Pong Ball Snorkel
Dr M. H. Cass (ALP VIC) told Federal Parliament in March that an underwater snorkel on sale in Australia was lethal.
He asked the Prime Minister, Mr Gorton, to investigate the sale of the snorkel.
Mr Gorton agreed to make the inquiries.
The snorkel was described by Dr Cass as a long, underwater breathing snorkel with Ping-Pong valves.
He said that an 8 year old boy had drowned in three feet of water while using the snorkel.
From: The Fisherman Winter, 1970 pg. 21, Snorkel described as lethal in Australian Parliament.

That's it for today and for Turnbull snorkels. Next time we'll take a look at Turnbull's combined snorkel-masks.

 

[David Wilson]

Let's move on to the combined snorkel-masks in the Turnbull range. There were no less than four of them, which is quite a large number for a single manufacturer but quite a small number for the quantity of combined snorkel-masks ever produced world-wide, which is over 100 models at my last count. Perhaps these will be the subject of a future thread.

De luxe with snorkel

The second image is a Grays of Cambridge advertisement from page 33 of May/June 1959 issue of the British Sub Aqua Club journal Triton. Grays of Cambridge had distribution rights for Turnbull gear within the UK. Grays priced the deluxe with snorkel mask at £1 14s 9d (one pound, fourteen shillings and nine pence), while charging 15/9 (fifteen shillings and nine pence) for a Sea Raider mask. So the combined snorkel-mask with its oval lens cost more than twice as much as the basic triangular diving mask without a fitted snorkel. Note how the De luxe with snorkel has the valve facing forwards, which reminds me of its Squale equivalent made in France:

The French Squale company dubbed their own model "Cygne", meaning "Swan" in French, which captures the image of the forward-looking ball-valve quite well.