TABLE 15.1 OPERATING SUBMERSIBLES (NOV. 1973) (Cont.) 



(Table 15.2) offer many capabilities of the 

 manned vehicles, with the added advantage 

 of virtually unlimited endurance and no man 

 in the system to add another rescuee. On the 

 other hand, they all have a cable to the 

 surface which may foul or limit maneuvera- 

 bility and they are subject to the same elec- 

 tro-mechanical malfunctions as the manned 

 submersible. 



The U.S. Navy's present and near-future 

 capabilities in tethered unmanned vehicles is 

 presented in Table 15.2; it is germane to note 

 that CVRV III, in addition to PISCES II and 

 V, attached a lift line to the stricken PISCES 

 III in its rescue from 1,575 feet in September 

 1973. 



To the capabilities of the unmanned de- 

 vices must be added the ALCOA SEAPROBE 

 (Fig. 15.9). Operated by Ocean Search, Inc., a 

 subsidiary of Aluminum Company of Amer- 

 ica, SEAPROBE offers the advantages of an 

 unmanned vehicle coupled with a lift capac- 

 ity of 200 tons from 6,000 feet. A list of 

 SEAPROBE's characteristics is presented in 

 Table 15.3 and a detailed discussion in refer- 

 ence (19). 



The working end of the ALCOA SEA- 

 PROBE system is located at the end of a pipe 

 string made of 60-foot segments of drill pipe 



threaded together to reach the depth re- 

 quired. A cable affixed to the pipe provides 

 the necessary electrical power, telemetry 

 control signals, and data transmission cir- 

 cuits between the shipboard control consoles 

 and the sensor systems. 



The basic search "pod" deploys side-scan 

 sonar to sweep a 2,400-foot path along the 

 sea floor. The pod is configured with forward 

 looking sonar, television, still camera, lights 

 and a releasable acoustic beacon to use in 

 marking specific targets. Heavy object recov- 

 ery devices are available which utilize elec- 

 tro-mechanical and hydraulic systems for 

 closure and holding control. Precise position- 

 ing of the recovery device with respect to the 

 target is by sonar and transponder sensing 

 devices in concert with remotely monitored 

 television and target illumination systems. 



The ALCOA SEAPROBE was on the scene 

 of the JOHNSON SEA LINK tragedy, but 

 recovery was completed before it could be 

 brought into play. 



Such is the variety of devices which may 

 be employed to retrieve a distressed sub- 

 mersible. In the final analysis, the rescuing 

 apparatus may well be something never in- 

 tended for such purposes. In the JOHNSON 

 SEA LINK incident, both divers and a 



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