TABLE 11.3 RESEARCH DIVES AND INSTRUMENTATION (Cont.) 



blew ballast to surface. With larger torpe- 

 does 1,500 feet of braided polypropylene line, 

 buoyed at the surface, was secured to 

 PISCES" manipulator and, with the torpedo 

 clamped, the manipulator was jettisoned and 

 later retrieved by hauling in the buoyed line 

 from the surface. At times, the torpedo was 

 buried beneath the sediment. In such in- 

 stances a 5-hp, electric motor drove a pump 

 attached to PISCES' manipulator which 

 sucked up mud and deposited it several me- 

 ters away. In this fashion the bottom was 

 "dug out" until the torpedo was located. In 

 12 months 120 torpedoes were retrieved us- 

 ing these methods. In a similar manner the 

 P/SCJBS-class vehicle has been used to exca- 

 vate the bottom for burial of cables. Lock- 

 heed developed a special device for large 

 object recovery for DEEP QUEST, shown in 

 Figure 11.20. 



Submersible Retrieval (Ref. 43) 



ALVIN was lost in 1968 when a cradle cable 

 broke during launch and she descended 5,500 

 feet deep off Cape Cod. ALVIN was subse- 



quently photographed and precisely located 

 by a towed "fish" which showed it sitting 

 upright on the bottom; a transponder and 

 flashing light was installed vei'y close to 

 ALVIN which served as a reference point for 

 ALUMINAUT. From USNS MIZAR a toggle 

 bar was lowered at the end of 7,000 feet of 

 4V2-inch-circumference nylon line; 500 feet 

 from the toggle bar two 1,000-pound lead 

 balls were attached and a Stimson anchor 

 below these. A flashing light was attached 50 

 feet above the toggle and a few feet above 

 was a transponder for MIZAR to interrogate. 

 On its first dive ALUMINAUT was guided by 

 MIZAR to ALVIN and found the hatch open. 

 Attempts to place the toggle bar inside the 

 hatch were futile until a second dive when 

 ALUMINAUT inserted a new toggle bar into 

 the hatch and attached its 25-foot-length of 

 6-inch line to the original lift line; MIZAR 

 then lifted ALVIN to the surface. 



Instrument Retrieval (Ref. 42) 



To retrieve a 2,930-foot-long current meter 

 array from the 3,150-foot depth off St. Croix, 



561 



