Our museums and galleries house fascinating collections, from living bugs to The Beatles, fine art to photography, the Titanic to ancient Egypt.
Follow us online:
Our museums and galleries house fascinating collections, from living bugs to The Beatles, fine art to photography, the Titanic to ancient Egypt.
Shoes online exhibition
Accession number 1984.183.3
These diver’s lead boots are part of a diving suit that was used in the Liverpool docks before coming into the collection of Merseyside Maritime Museum.
The boots are made of leather and weighted with leadened soles, which along with chest and back weights in the rest of the suit took the diver down to the required depth.
The suit was manufactured by Siebe Gorman Ltd. This British company, established in the early 19th century, developed diving and breathing equipment.
The rest of the equipment in the suit comprised of a canvas diving suit with rubber collar and attached mitts, breastplates, weights worn on the back and chest, and a helmet made of copper. Air would have been pumped from the surface through an air hose which is connected to the back of the helmet.
