house's San Diego facility as a part of its 

 research inventory, the system was moved to 

 Annapolis in 1971 and made available for 

 leasing. 



Another addition to the grov^^ing California 

 Fleet was SNOOPER, a 2-man, 1,000-ft sub- 

 mersible built by Sea Graphics Inc. of Tor- 

 rance for underwater photography. Farther 

 north, International Hydrodynamics Ltd. 

 added the 3,600-ft PISCES III to its inven- 

 tory and put it to work on its U.S. Navy 

 torpedo retrieval contract. 



Across the Pacific, the first of the follow-on 

 vehicles stemming out oi HI KINO appeared, 

 the 2-man, 300-ft KUMUKAHI. Built and op- 

 erated at the Makapuu Oceanic Center by 

 the Oceanic Institute at Waimanalo, Hawaii, 

 KUMUKAHI (meaning "first of a series" in 

 Hawaiian) had a IVs-inch-thick, 53-inch-di- 

 ameter pressure hull made in four parts of 

 plexiglass. 



KUMUKAHI was to serve as a test vehicle 

 for the far more ambitious DEEP VOYAGER 

 Program. Though only a design, the sub- 

 mersible DEEP VOYAGER would conduct a 

 transit from Hawaii to the U.S. by nothing 

 more than taking on ballast and descending 

 at a controlled glide and then attaining posi- 

 tive buoyancy at 20,000 feet by generating 

 hydrazine gas and ascending at another 

 specified glide ratio. A total of 48 ascents/ 

 descents was calculated to take the 3-man 

 vehicle 2,400 miles across the Pacific in 16 

 days. The DEEP VOYAGER Project, esti- 

 mated at $2.25 million, never saw fruition 

 and, after a few dives, KUMUKAHI itself was 

 retired and put on display at Sea Life Park 

 in Waimanalo. 



The year 1969 also saw the advent of the 

 Jules Verne-like NR-1. Though the majority 

 of its construction and operational details 

 are classified, the U.S. Navy's NR-1 broke 

 away from the constrictions of lead-acid bat- 

 teries and incorporated a nuclear reactor 

 into its 130-ft long hull. With a life support of 

 45 days and virtually unlimited power, the 

 General Dynamics-built NR-1 seems capable 

 of research and surveying on a scale unap- 

 proachable by its contemporaries, and at an 

 estimated cost of $100 million (15) it is un- 

 likely to be rivaled for some time to come. 



Minute by comparison were the two 1-man, 

 1,600-ft SP-500's (PUCE DE MER or Sea 



Fleas) launched by Cousteau's Office Fran- 

 cais de Recherches Sous-Marine (later be- 

 coming Centre D'Etudes Marine Avancees- 

 CEMA) in Marseilles. Primarily for underwa- 

 ter photography, the 10-ft long SP-SOO^s 

 would be used to film much of the later 

 television footage in which the Cousteau 

 group so excels. 



Other "firsts" were appearing in the sub- 

 mersible field. The Piccard-designed BEN 

 FRANKLIN inauspiciously submerged in the 

 Gulf Stream off Palm Beach, Florida on 14 

 July and surfaced 30 days later south of the 

 Grand Banks. Only once during the 1,500- 

 mile drift did the vehicle experience diffi- 

 culty, and that occurred in the second week 

 when an eddy carried it out of the Stream 

 and required its support ship PRIVATEER to 

 tow it back to the central core. For 30 days 

 BEN franklin's hatches remained sealed 

 and the unique, life support system sup- 

 ported the 6-man crew. An account of this 

 trip is in Piccard's The Sun Beneath the Sea 

 (42), and the flawless performance of BEN 

 FRANKLIN is a tribute to his thoroughness 

 and infinite capacity for paying attention to 

 the minute details which can accumulate to 

 ungovernable proportions if left unattended. 



As BEN FRANKLIN silently drifted below 

 the ocean's surface, the U.S. Space Program 

 reached its culmination with the first moon 

 landing. While the two events may appear 

 unrelated, a NASA engineer aboard BEN 

 FRANKLIN collected data on "man in isola- 

 tion" which would be applied to the Skylab 

 Project, an "orbital drift" of the seventies. 



Throughout the U.S. submersible activity 

 in private industry began to experience the 

 worst of Mr. Horton's earlier forecast. An 

 article in BUSINESS WEEK, "Research Subs 

 on the Beach" (27 Dec 1969), saw an even 

 gloomier 1970 season, and listed several sub- 

 mersibles (STAR II and ///, DEEPSTAR 

 4000, DOWB, BEAVER, DEEP QUEST) as 

 either laid up or idle. From the vantage point 

 of large American industry, it was becoming 

 painfully clear: The high water mark in long- 

 term profitable submersible lease programs 

 had been reached; the Federal government 

 was not the only group making painful deci- 

 sions. 



60 



