from a laboratory on Nonsuch Island. Finan- 

 cial support came from both the Zoological 

 Museum, where he was Director of the De- 

 partment of Tropical Research, and later 

 from the National Geographic Society. 



Beebe's accounts of BATHYSPHERE'S 

 dives in Htilf Mile Down are exciting, in- 

 formative and extremely readable. Indeed, 

 his voyages aroused public interest to the 

 point where his narrative during the 1,500- 

 to 2,200-foot portion of a dive on 23 Septem- 

 ber 1932 was transmitted live to the United 

 States and Europe by the National Broad- 

 casting Corporation. Professor Beebe in the 

 1930's and 40's was as familiar an undersea 

 figure as Jacques Cousteau would be a score 

 of years later. 



In spite of Beebe's successes the BATHY- 

 SPHERE and its mode of operation has sev- 

 eral deficiencies for the undersea biologist; 

 some were minor, others were potentially 

 serious. 



— With a weight displacement ratio of 

 1.49, the BATHYSPHERE would sink 

 like a rock if the cable broke. 

 — External pressures squeezed, from 

 several inches to several feet, the elec- 

 trical cable into the cabin on each dive. 

 Packing the cable in ice to contract it 

 before tightening down on the stuffing 

 box alleviated this problem somewhat. 

 — A voltage drop from 110 V to 75 V 

 caused by the resistance in 3,600 feet 

 of cable reduced the lights' candle 

 power (2,628 to 732) and required 

 switching to a more powerful genera- 

 tor for photography. The lights, shin- 

 ing through the glass viewport, heated 

 it to a dangerous level. 

 ^The cramped quarters in the 4V2-foot 

 sphere made a dive of 3V2 hours almost 

 the limit of endurance. 

 — Every up-down motion of the surface 

 ship was transmitted to the sphere and 

 only a flat calm allowed a specified 

 depth to be maintained. 

 — Although corrected to an acceptable 

 degree — by packing with white lead lu- 

 bricant — leakage around viewports 

 and hatch cover occurred frequently. 

 The lack of horizontal maneuverability 

 prompted Beebe to take, what must be con- 

 sidered, daring measures on shallow reef- 

 exploring dives. Towed along by the surface 



ship, and with fixed wooden rudders at- 

 tached to stabilize the sphere, Beebe ob- 

 served the bottom at close range and relied 

 solely on voice command to the ship to raise 

 the BATHYSPHERE when a vertical obsta- 

 cle appeared in his path. On one such voyage, 

 he relates an encounter with a towering 

 coral head which came perilously close to 

 colliding with the dangling sphere. One must 

 stand in awe of these early pioneers, for in 

 the thirties a parting of the cable, even at 

 shallow depths, virtually guaranteed a death 

 warrant. 



To one early undersea adventurer, Menotti 

 Nani, the technical and environmental perils 

 of deep submergence were apparently inci- 

 dental. Mr. C. R. Vincent, an early 1930's 

 metal alloys fabricator of Newark, New Jer- 

 sey, was approached by Mr. Nani to con- 

 struct a 300-ft, 1-man submersible of his de- 

 sign. Mr. Vincent, now of Houston, Texas, 

 recently related this experiment in a Febru- 

 ary 1974 issue of "The Ensign" and called 

 the little boat another "Novelty of the 

 Depression Era." Constructed almost en- 

 tirely of Krupp stainless steel, the submers- 

 ible (Fig. 3.2) had four tiny glass viewports 

 aft and relied upon the ejection of com- 

 pressed air for propulsion. Mr. Nani's origi- 

 nal intention was to demonstrate the feasi- 

 bility of this type of submersible for observa- 

 tion and, with modifications, submarine res- 

 cue. But, except for a few test dives in the 

 Passaic and Hudson Rivers, the prototype 

 never realized its potential and slipped qui- 

 etly into obscurity. Its demise, however, 

 could not be attributed to lack of daring on 

 Mr. Nani's part, for at one point his plans 

 envisioned riding in the submersible as it 

 was dropped from the George Washington 

 Bridge. The New York City police, however, 

 considered the plan to be without scientific 

 merit and refused permission. 



In spite of the high public interest and 

 many scientific revelations of the BATHY- 

 SPHERE, a period of deep-sea inactivity fol- 

 lowed its successful dives. To the clairvoy- 

 ant, a hint of where the next activity might 

 arise could have come from the many refer- 

 ences by Beebe to the stratospheric balloon- 

 ing accomplishments of a Swiss physicist, Au- 

 guste Piccard, who displayed a keen interest 

 in Beebe's dives. 



34 



