The West German firm Bruker-Physik A.G. 

 launched the 984-ft, 2-man MERMAID I in 

 1972 to fulfill a wide variety of tasks. The 

 Karlsruhe-based firm is constructing a sec- 

 ond craft, MERMAID III, to be launched in 

 1975; similar to its sister-vehicle, the later 

 version includes diver lock-out and transfer 

 capabilities. 



A second West German firm, Maschinen- 

 bau Gabler GmbH of Lubeck, produced the 

 984-ft, 2-man TOURS 64 and TOURS 66 in 

 1971 and 1972, respectively. Differing in di- 

 mensions, the 66-boat being slightly larger, 

 both have surface diesel-electric propulsion 

 and a cruising range of 400 nautical miles. 

 Both submersibles were built specifically for 

 the unique role of "coral cracking" or gather- 

 ing gem-quality red and pink deep-sea corals. 

 The harvesting of this valuable coral — which 

 lives beyond routine, compressed-air, am- 

 bient diving depths — was an early prognosti- 



cation of the role submersibles might play. 

 TOURS 64 was delivered to the Taiwan- 

 based firm of Kuofeng Ocean Development 

 Corp. in Taipei; TOURS 66 went to the Ital- 

 ian firm of SELMAR at Cagliari, Sardinia. 



Adding to its country's small, but viable, 

 submersible fleet, the Japanese firm of Ka- 

 wasaki Heavy Industries built the 984-ft, 4- 

 man HAKUYO, for continental shelf work by 

 Ocean Systems Japan, Ltd. Launched in 

 1971, the versatile HAKUYO would be a pri- 

 vate-industry vehicle for engineering and 

 surveying work by other offshore interests. 



At this writing the Perry company and 

 International Hydrodynamics are each in 

 the design and construction stage of several 

 more submersibles. There is talk of a 20,000- 

 ft Japanese submersible, but actual con- 

 struction has not been reported. 



Several— perhaps 10 or 20— small, shallow- 

 diving submersibles were built during the 



Fig 3.33 A variety ol one- and two-man shallow diving submersibles (Douglas Pnvitt, Gen Oceanographies) 



66 



