NAVY-MAN-IN- THE-OCEM 



by 



Commander Willard F. Searle, Jr., U. S. N. 

 Supervisor of Salvage, U. S. Navy 



The primary purpose of this paper will be to define for you the breadth 

 of the Navy's present capability for placing man in the ocean for the exe- 

 cution of one task or another, and, having defined this rather extensive 

 capability, to suggest to you that this part of the Navy and the men who do 

 the work in the ocean, and generally under its surface, constitutes a sepa- 

 rate and distinct corps of the service. Call this corps of the service 

 "Navy-Man- in- the- Ocean " . It might also be called "Navy Man Underwater"; or 

 perhaps someone will come up with a better generic term, paralleling "Naval 

 Aviation" . 



This paper deliberately avoids use of the term "Man-in-the-Sea" because 

 this term has come to represent a specific program . The program' s purpose 

 is to extend the capability of the existing Man-in- the-Ocean corps of the 

 Navy. In fact, the Man-in-the-Sea Program only covers one of the several 

 basic missions of the Navy Man-in-the-Ocean corps. It covers only sub- 

 marine rescue and salvage and the R and D areas -- those tasks which will 

 be described later on as falling under a Logistic and Service mission. The 

 Man-in-the-Sea Program does not cover either the offensive or defensive 

 underwater missions. This essay addresses, therefore, not the program but, 

 rather, the overall arm of the service -- Navy-Man-in- the-Ocean -- which is 

 manned by swimmers and divers of one type or another. 



By way of history it may be pointed out that underwater men have been 

 an important part of the Navy for well over a hundred years. The advent of 

 underwater machinery -- shafting, propellers and sea suctions -- and under- 

 water ordnance in the form of mines and torpedoes, provided the stimulus 

 for early specialized training in underwater work. For example, in an ar- 

 ticle which he wrote in I879, Admiral Stephen B. Luce stated that: 



"...a corps of divers for the Navy has come to be a 

 necessity of the times, and these divers, besides being 

 trained as seamen, should be trained also for submarine 

 warfare. " 



Luce envisaged a corps of divers. Did he also envisage a corps of 

 fliers? Whether or not he did, today we can use the term "Navy-Man- in- the- 

 Ocean" to describe this underwater corps much as one uses the term "Naval 

 Aviation" to describe our air corps. The generic term "Naval Aviation" 

 conjures up a picture of the very large, very vital, very well known, well 



2 7, 



