Fathom’s Insight

Some four centuries before the birth of Christ, Aristotle wrote of small “diving bells” used by sponge divers who regularly worked at depths of 75 to 100 feet. The bells were inverted bowls weighted down by stones. The divers would stick their heads in them to replenish their air without surfacing. The air in the bells, in turn was re-supplied by weighted skins filled air and lowered from the surfaced.In 1620 A.D. a Dutchman, Cornelius van Drebel, is said to have constructed a submersible under contract to King James I of England. It was operated by 12 rowers, with leather sleeves waterproofing to oar-ports. Cans containing some “secret substance” (soda lime?) were opened periodically to purify the air. It is said the craft navigated the Thames River at depths of 12 to 15 feet for several hours.

In 1707 Dr. Edmund Halley (of Halley’s Comet fame) built a diving bell with a limited “lock-out” capability. It had glass ports above to light the inside of the bell, provisions for replenishing its air and crude, umbilically-supplied diving helmets which permitted divers to walk around outside - so long as they didn’t lower their heads below the water level in the bell!

In the late 1770’s Connecticut Yankee Dr. David Bushnell built and operated a small wooden submarine designed to attach mines to and blow up British warships. After several abortive attempts, TURTLE, as the vehicle was named, did account for one enemy schooner.

In the early 1800’s Robert Fulton (inventory of the steamship) built two iron-framed, copper-skinned submarines, NAUTILUS and MUTE. The former carried out successful military tests against moored targets for both France’s Napoleon Bonaparte and the British. Neither craft was ever used operationally, however.

The first “modern” submersible - it could be argued - was Simon Lake’s ARGONAUT FIRST, a small clumsy-looking vehicle launched shortly before 1890. Made of wooden planks and waterproofed with pitch, it was powered by a gasoline engine snorkeled flexible hose, and it boasted blowable ballast tanks - the first submarine to do so. In addition, it sported powered wheels and a bottom hatch that could be opened - after the interior was pressurized to ambient - to permit the hand recovery of bottom sample, including oysters.

These are just a few examples of the long history and the nature of man’s early technological efforts to function effectively within the ocean environment. While Simon Lake in the part of the 20th century did develop a submersible salvage, including submersible barges, and managed to recover a cargo of anthracite coal from the bottom of Long Island Sound, the manned submersible was not to emerge as a diverse and functional means of accomplishing useful underwater work for over half a century, which brings us to where this work commences.

In 1965 a delegation from the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office journeyed to Lantana, Florida to evaluate John Perry’s CUBMARINE as an undersea surveyor.

The “evaluation,” to say the least, was cursory and strongly resembled a used car purchase. The team (headed by the author) gazed astutely at the tiny, yellow craft from various angles, rapped its steel hull for toughness, caressed its sides from smoothness and sat inside to see if they fit. A few hours later the team leader had the opportunity to dive in the (now pronounced) “sound” vehicle for an operational evaluation. This was predictable: One could see out of it, the seats were hard and there wasn’t much room. But, what else could the amateur do? Had it been possible, we probably would have taken a bite out of it.

Since the mid-sixties hundreds of scientific and technical articles have appeared describing the design and materials of what are now called manned submersibles. Several books have been published that relate the activities of specific vehicles. As a result, the industrious student can - with patients and a comprehensive library - become quite familiar with the history, jargon, design and operations of submersibles and need not feel like a technological ignoramus on his first encounter.

Unfortunately, as the new student soon learns, there is no single point of reference from which to begin an education. The information is available, but it is so scattered that merely accumulating an adequate bibliography is a chore, and in the course of assembling this data, the field itself is moving at so rapid a pace that most vehicle descriptions are in error within a time of their publication.

Adding to the consternation is the jargon; many of the terms used to describe manned submersibles, such as “trim,” “blow,” “vent,” came directly military submarines, but “viewports,” “mechanical arms,” “claws,” and others terms are unique to the submersibles. Indeed “manned submersibles” is not used with consistency. “Undersea Vehicles,” “Deep Research Vehicles,” “Deep Submergence Vehicle,” “Mini Subs,” “Submersible Vessel,” even “Submarinos” are synonymous. So the quest for an introduction, even a nodding acquaintance, may be detoured by jargon alone.

On the other hand there are the participants of the field; though not blocked by jargon, they have no ready access to the technological advancements or even the current progress in their own field. There is a wide variety of technical and semi-technical journals wherein bits and pieces of experience in, and advice on, submersible operations and the results of tests or evaluation of components can be found, but the time it takes to review the literature (even if it could all be found in one place is prohibitive.

Then, there is the student of maritime history who will find excellent documentation of the early bathyscaphs and two or three accounts of the later vehicles but little at all on the techniques and design in the field at large. Reference is made alter in this chapter to documentation within the field of deep submergence. It is sufficient to note that in terms of documentation the full-scale, peaceful invasion of the ocean in the last score of years and remains almost invisible.

This is not to infer that the manned submersible is merely a historical curiosity. Documenting the ways of deep submergence benefits not only the historian but potential users and designers as well. If one is to use a present capability or improvement it and at the same time avoid reinventing the wheel, it is obvious that one must know the stage to which it has advanced. In manned submersibles the “state-of-the-art” is most difficult to measure. Fore every question there are almost as many answers as there are submersibles. One might ask, “Of what are they built?” The answer is steel, aluminum, plastic, glass, and wood. “How deep can they dive?” From 150 to 36,000 feet. “How long can they stay under?” From 6 hours to 6 weeks. In short, to find the state-of-the-art, one must look at the overall field. Where one vehicle is lacking, another is not and where one cannot perform a particular task as well as another, it might very well outperform its rival in a different job. Canvassing the entire field to define each vehicle’s capabilities entails a world-wide search, which few have the time or funds to pursue.

It is to help solve these problems that this book is written it is an examination, analysis and synthesis of the last 26 years during which over 100 deep- and shallow-diving submersibles have been constructed and operated in many parts of the world. Within the past year (1973-1974) utilization and construction have literally skyrocketed following a 3-year period during which submersibles were, in fact, becoming historical curiosities.

At this point in time it would seem appropriate, therefore, to see where we are.