OPERATIONS 



Richard A. Waller 



Department of the Interior 



Washington, D. C. 



INTRODUCTION 



The operational phase of TEKTITE II consisted of: the various tasks 

 necessary to maintain and support an underwater habitat and its rotat- 

 ing crews of scientists and engineers; the training and housing of the 

 aquanaut crews and program support personnel; adequate procedures to 

 insure the safety and well-being of program personnel and site visitors; 

 and, related activities associated with logistics, transportation, and 

 communications . 



This section will treat each of these tasks in order and will also 

 describe other tasks including site preparation, installation of major 

 equipment, and site evacuation, 



SITE PREPARATION 



The operational site for TEKTITE II was Great Lameshur Bay, St. John, 

 U. S. Virgin Islands, the same site as had been used during the 

 TEKTITE I program a year earlier. The principal difference was that a 

 shore-based surface support center was used instead of the barge-mounted 

 center used in the earlier program. The shore -based facility required 

 the construction of a narrow road to the support site overlooking 

 Beehive CoYe, clearance of the site, the construction of a stairwell 

 leading down 100 feet to the cove, and the construction of a bridge and 

 dive platform which provided access to the decompression barge. Con- 

 struction of these particular facilities was undertaken by the Government 

 of the Virgin Islands during January and February 1970. Throughout this 

 same period, the base camp, which had been turned over to the College 

 of the Virgin Islands after TEKTITE I, was being prepared for program use 

 under a contract with the Virgin Islands Government. 



The initial contingent of support personnel, a group of diver technicians 

 from Highline Community College, arrived on site February 15, 1970. Work 

 was begun shortly thereafter in the placement of 5-ton and 3-ton concrete 

 clumps for mooring purposes in several strategic sites within Lameshur 

 Bay. The clumps had been deposited in the Bay in January 1970 by the 

 U. S. Coast Guard Cutter SAGEBRUSH, a Buoy Tender, operating out of San Juan, 

 Puerto Rico. These clumps served as moorings for the ballast barge, cause- 

 way pier, the habitat (holding site), emplacement barge, and the de- 

 compression barge. These pre-mission sites are identified in Figure 14. 

 Some of the clumps were later shifted to new locations after ballasting and 

 emplacement of the habitat was completed. 



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