ONE OF THREE CALYPSO BEANIES! WIN

As a neat little extra, and a nod to the late Jacques Cousteau, Billing Boats’ will be including one of the trademark red woolly divers’ hats always sported by this world-famous oceanographer and his team in each example of the first, limited edition, run of its back by popular demand kit for the Calypso. This month, however, thanks to the generosity of kind folks at Billing Boats, we’ve got three of these smart little beanies up for grabs!

Why the red divers’ hat?

Those of you who remember the wonderful TV documentaries produced by the now legendary underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau aboard the Calypso will recall that he and his diving team always wore these red divers’ hats. So, what’s the story behind them?

Well, during the early days of underwater exploration, when divers had to be enclosed in canvas suits and copper helmets, they needed to wear something warm on their heads. The air that was continuously blown into their helmets for them to breathe was very cold; even colder than the surrounding water, because by the time it was fed down via the long air hose through the low temperature depths it also, as it entered the helmet, expanded slightly, thus chilling it a little more. What’s more, the air needed to be deliberately blown around the helmet to ensure effective ventilation, thus preventing any build-up of expired air and avoiding any condensation forming on the viewing ports – which added a ‘wind-chill’ factor to the cooling effect.

Early divers would have used whatever the common form of thermal head protection around was at the time helmet apparatus was introduced (circa1840s). This tended to be a red woolly cap commonly used by sailors back then, and especially by the oyster fishermen from Whitstable in Kent, England, the ‘home’ of helmet diving. A quotation referring to these hats came about in 1851 when someone described the oyster fishermen tied up at London’s Billingsgate fish market, selling their loads of oysters:

“Who’s for Baker’s?” “Who’s for Archer’s?” Who’ll have Alston’s?” shout the oyster merchants and the red cap of the man in the hold bobs up and down as he rattles the shells about with a spade”

Contemporary paintings of sailors and boatmen also illustrate the common use of the red woolly cap.

The caps themselves were of the ‘sleeve’ pattern, in that they were knitted as a sleeve. The two ends were then stitched up and the sleeve half-pulled inside-out, making it a doubled layered sleeve, now open at one end. The open end was pulled over the head and the lower edge was turned up to provide a four layered band around the forehead. The red divers’ cap tradition was therefore established at the same time as diving helmets were introduced at the oyster fishing port of Whitstable, UK.

It’s interesting to also note that the famous British diving equipment manufacturers of the 19th century, C.E Heinke & Co and Siebe Gorman & Co, included the red woolly cap in full sets of the diving apparatus they sold

How to enter

All you have to do to be in with a chance of bagging one of these beanies is complete the entry form included on this page, cut it out (photocopies of the form will be acceptable for those of you who do not wish to deface your magazine) and mail it back to us at:

BB Calypso Beanie Hat Prize Draw Model Boats, Mortons Media Group, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR

Please note, the closing date for entry submissions will be Friday, July 21, 2023 Good luck, everyone!

TERMS & CONDITIONS

Competition closes Friday, July 21, 2023. There are no cash alternatives available. Terms and conditions apply. To view the privacy policy of MMG Ltd (publisher of Model Boats) please visit www.mortons. co.uk/privacy