attack submarine THRESHER (SSN-593) 

 (Fig. 3.12) disappeared in 8,400 feet of water 

 off the coast of New England and carried 129 

 men to their death. A Navy task force was 

 immediately fielded to locate the wreckage 

 and attempt to determine the cause of the 

 sinking. In addition to a variety of devices to 

 search the general area — such as towed cam- 

 eras and magnetic sensors — the searchers 

 also desired to place men on the scene. At 

 this time TRIESTE constituted the only U.S. 

 capability for reaching 8,400 feet. 



TRIESTE'S performance in 1963 and a year 

 later was less than admirable: Too slow tow- 

 ing (2-3 knots); too slow submerged (0.9 

 knot); awkward to maneuver; surface pre- 

 and post-dive preparations could not be per- 

 formed when seas greater than 3 to 4 feet 

 high prevailed; in short, the bathyscaph was 

 simply not able to put the time on the bottom 

 required for searching (24). Even with an 

 interim overhaul, from which a newly desig- 

 nated TRIESTE II emerged with a new float 

 designed for faster towing (Fig. 3.13) and 

 greater propulsive power and a manipulator, 

 it wasn't much better than an elevator, and 

 an unreliable one at that. 



Two weeks after THRESHER met its 

 doom, the Secretary of the Navy set up a 

 Deep Submergence Systems Review Group 

 which conducted a year-long study on deep- 

 oceans operations, not only for THRESHER- 

 type search missions, but for recovery of 

 missile and space components as well. In 

 June 1964 the DSSRG released its report. 

 Four main categories were addressed: 1) Re- 

 covery (rescue of personnel); 2) man-in-the- 



Fig 3 12 The USS THRESHER which sank in 1962 and earned 129 men lo Iheir 

 deaths, (US, Navy) 



sea; 3) investigation of the ocean bottom and 

 recovery of small objects, and 4) recovery of 

 large objects. The total amount recom- 

 mended for a 5-year program to meet the 

 group's stated objectives was $333 million. 

 Specifically, the recommendations of interest 

 to submersible builders called for the follow- 

 ing: 



Recovery of Personnel: Six reSCUe UnitS with 



two submersibles in each unit capable of 

 rescuing personnel from the collapse depth 

 of current submarines (at a later date a 

 depth of 5,000 ft was established). 



Recovery of Small Objects and Ocean Floor Investi- 

 gation: Two search units of two small sub- 

 mersibles each with an ultimate depth ca- 

 pability of 20,000 feet. 



Recovery of Large Objects: An Unspecified num- 

 ber of small submersibles capable of sup- 

 porting recovery of intact submarines 

 down to collapse depth. 



The recommendations were accepted in 

 June 1964 and a Deep Submergence System 

 Project was established to execute them. The 

 following November a meeting was held in 

 Washington, D.C., where the DSSP was de- 

 scribed and areas of technological concern 

 delineated. Eight hundred industry repre- 

 sentatives attended; 1,000 were unable to 

 attend owing to lack of space (25). The abso- 

 lute finality of sudden, violent death, the 

 lack of knowledge as to why and the possibil- 

 ity of nuclear contamination, of which no 

 evidence could be found (24), produced a re- 

 action never before witnessed in the wake of 

 a submarine tragedy. 



With increasing attention focusing on the 

 deep sea, new submersibles joined the fledg- 

 ling 1964 community. The 100-ft NAUTI- 

 LETTE continued to pursue the recreational 

 field, but John Perry's PC-3A1, a 300-ft, 2- 

 man submersible, went to the U.S. Army for 

 a new type mission: Recovery of missile com- 

 ponents in the down-range islands of the 

 South Pacific. Its sister-sub, PC-3A2, went 

 to the Air Force for similar tasks. 



At the Naval Ordnance Test Station, China 

 Lake, California, the 2,000-ft, 2-man DEEP 

 JEEP was launched. DEEP JEEP, under 

 construction since 1961, was built primarily 

 to evaluate various design systems and oper- 

 ational techniques anticipated for a general- 

 purpose oceanographic and work submers- 



45 



