Glossary
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Today, all underwater archeological projects involve divers equipped with modern self-regulating breathing apparatus. The old, very large and cumbersome Hard Hat gear is now only found in museum settings. On the P.S. Lady Sherbrooke project divers usually wore a "dry-suit" which, in theory, kept the water away from the diver. The neoprene suit also protected the diver from the cold.

When a diver entered the water he would carry a number of lead weights on a belt. This counteracted his natural buoyancy and allowed him to dive to the wreck easier. For propulsion the diver wore a pair of fins on his feet. A final element of the ensemble was a face mask that covered the diver's eyes and nose.

In total the weight of all of this equipment could easily exceed 45 kilos (100 pounds). Out of the water a diver was very awkward but once underwater he could swim like a fish. Depending on the difficulty of the work performed by a diver an air bottle could last up to an hour at the depth of the wreck. When a diver left the water it was often necessary to wash him off.