a) VICKERS VOYAGER: Support ship for 

 two rescue submersibles 



b) RFA SIR TRISTAM: The nearest avail- 

 able ship to which the Vickers communi- 

 cation team transferred while VICKERS 

 VOYAGER transited to Cork to pick up 

 the two submersibles PISCES II and 

 PISCES IV. This vessel was relieved of 

 its duties by HMS HECATE arriving 

 some 11 hours after S/« TRISTAM. 



c) PISCES II: A 3,500-ft submersible be- 

 longing to Vickers and working at the 

 time some 150 miles from England 

 aboard VICKERS VENTURER in the 

 North Sea. This vehicle was transferred 

 to the rig supply vessel COMET, carried 

 to Teasdock, England, thence to Teeside 

 Airport where it was loaded aboard a 

 Hercules aircraft and transported to 

 Cork for loading aboard VICKERS VOY- 

 AGER. 



d) PISCES V: A 6,500-ft submersible be- 

 longing to International Hydrodynam- 

 ics, Ltd., Vancouver, B.C. and working 

 on the east coast of Canada. It was 

 subsequently airlifted from Halifax, 

 N.S., to Cork and thence aboard VICK- 

 ERS VOYAGER. 



e) CURV III: An unmanned, tethered, self- 

 propelled vehicle located in San Diego, 

 California and belonging to the U.S. 

 Navy. CURV was subsequently airlifted 

 to Cork and loaded aboard JOHN CAB- 

 OT for transporation and deployment 

 to the scene. 



f) JOHN CABOT: A Canadian cable laying 

 vessel under contract to the U.S. Navy 

 and tied up at Swansea, Wales. JOHN 

 CABOT would serve as support ship for 

 CURV III and as retrieval ship for 

 PISCES III. 



g) AEOLUS: A U.S. Navy salvage ship 

 working in the area and ordered to the 

 scene to assist where possible. 



The salvage scheme decided upon for 

 PISCES III was to insert "toggle" hooks into 

 its open machinery sphere and lift it up from 

 the surface. The toggle hooks were fabri- 

 cated by Vickers in England immediately 

 upon notification of the emergency. Eventu- 

 ally, three lines were attached to PISCES 

 III: The first {4-in. polypropylene) was by 

 PISCES V to the port motor guard (this line 



was initially attached to the lift padeye, but 

 fell out and hooked into the guard); the sec- 

 ond (3V2-in. polypropylene) was a toggle in- 

 serted into the machinery sphere by PISCES 

 II and the third (6-in. braided nylon) into the 

 same location by CURV III. At 60 to 100 feet 

 deep, a line (4-in. braided nylon) was passed 

 through PISCES I IPs lift padeye by divers, 

 and on the surface a 16-ton snap hook and 

 25-ton wire combination, plus flotation bags, 

 were also attached by divers. Throughout 

 the entire incident all major assets (manned 

 and unmanned vehicles) experienced mal- 

 functions. This could be anticipated in any 

 like incident and the details are unnecessary 

 for this narrative. Significant, however, was 

 PISCES IIPs life support: 15 minutes after 

 landing on the bottom life support was esti- 

 mated to last through 0800 hours on 1 Sep- 

 tember, at 1251 hours on 31 August it was 

 estimated to last until 1200 hours, and fi- 

 nally estimated at 0830 on 1 September to 

 last until well past midday. The builder's 

 (International Hydrodynamics) advertised 

 life support for this submersible is 72 hours; 

 Vickers Oceanics (the vehicle's owner) stated 

 (in an advertising brochure) that it was 

 about 60 hours. The additional 13 to 25 hours 

 was either; a) always there or b) obtained by 

 controlled breathing and limited movement 

 of the occupants. 



The major events of this rescue are shown 

 in Table 15.4 and the location of lift lines in 

 Figure 15.11. With approximately 1 hour and 

 43 minutes of life support remaining, the 

 crew of PISCES III can be thankful they 

 were not 250 miles, rather than 150 miles 

 from Cork. A mere 3 or 5 hours longer trans- 

 iting time from Ireland to the emergency 

 scene could have measured the difference 

 between life or death. 



REFERENCES 



1. Pritzlaff, J. A. 1972 Submersible safety- 

 through accident analysis. Mar. Tech. 

 Soc. Jour., V. 6, n. 3, p. 33-40. 



2. Cousteau, J. Y. 1963 The Living Sea. 

 Harper and Row, Publishers, New York. 



3. Forman, W. R. 19 Oct 67 Naval Weapons 

 Center, China Lake, Calif, (personal com- 

 munication) 



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