Fig 3.20 General Dynamic s 1966 entries into Deep Submergence: STAR II and III. (Gen Dyn. Corp.) 



certification. Prior to 1966 Naval military 

 and civilian employees could officially dive in 

 privately-owned vehicles v^^ith no more than 

 the permission of their superiors. In 1966 the 

 Navy instituted procedures for certifying 

 submersibles to assure that they were mate- 

 rially safe to dive. Instructions were later 

 issued to certify the operators and the na- 

 ture of the mission as well. DEEPSTAR 4000 

 was the first commercial vehicle to become 

 Navy-certified. To July 1969 all other com- 

 mercial submersibles were granted certifica- 

 tion waivers. Other government non-Naval 

 activities, academia and industry had no 

 such requirements until some adopted the 

 American Bureau of Shipping's standards in 

 1968. 



ABS does not certify, instead it classifies 

 submersibles to conduct a specific task, such 

 as transportation or research. The Navy's 

 certification, on the other hand, is for certain 

 depths and stated time periods and is only 

 concerned with safety of the passengers. 

 ABS classification is completely voluntary 

 and need not be undergone if the lessee does 

 not make it a requirement. Indeed, the only 

 Federal regulations governing submersible 

 operations then and now are the Coast 

 Guard's regulations applying to small craft. 

 Certification and regulations are dealt with 

 in more detail in a later chapter. It is suffi- 

 cient to note here that many small-submers- 



ible operators feared that the Navy's certifi- 

 cation procedures, which require a great deal 

 of expensive testing and documentation, 

 would be adopted by the government gener- 

 ally. Of nine bills introduced to Congress 

 regarding submersible safety since 1968, 

 none have become law. 



Further entries to the 1966 submersible 

 fleet came from General Dynamics Corpora- 

 tion in the form of the 1,200-ft STAR II and 

 the 2,000-ft STAR III (Fig. 3.20). 



1967 



^'Unless more small subm.ersibles are 

 built in the near future, the demand for 

 these craft may exceed the supply.'^ 



— National Council on Marine 

 Research & Engineering 

 February 1967 Development Report 



To fill this demand, Lockheed Missiles and 

 Space Division launched its sophisticated, 

 8,000-ft, 4-man DEEP QUEST. Lockheed was 

 the first submersible builder to construct a 

 support ship/launch-retrieval system specifi- 

 cally designed for its submersible, and DEEP 

 QUEST included virtually every type of con- 

 trol and maneuvering capability one could 

 envision for submersible missions. In addi- 

 tion to research, engineering or survey 

 tasks, the 40-ft-long vehicle could be fitted 

 with a transfer skirt on the bottom of its aft 



54 



