Info Manned deep submersibles, a brief history

[Akimbo]

Deep submersibles are fascinating to most divers, but they rarely get to look under the hood — or cowlings. This thread is an attempt at an overview without boring the vast majority of divers with details. Links are included for ScubaBoard readers that want to learn more. Hopefully other members can add to the thread.

Episode 12 of the Jacques Cousteau Odyssey is an entertaining introduction and premiered in 1970.

​

The history of practical deep submersibles began after World War II. Deep submersibles are manned and are designed for short duration divers and small crews, though there are a few exceptions.

Submarines, Bathyscaphes, and Submersibles​

Submarines​

In general, submarines are ocean-going vessels that have nearly all their "systems" inside the hull, are designed for extended missions, and are primarily used by the world's navies.

A few military-scale "research" submarines have been built. Perhaps the most notable are the US Navy's nuclear powered NR-1 and USS Dolphin (AGSS-555), which is on display at the San Diego Maritime Museum.

Bathyscaphes​

Bathyscaphes are an obsolete class of ultra-deep diving manned submersibles. They are characterized using aviation gasoline for buoyancy.

The bathyscaphe concept was developed by Professor August Piccard, a Swiss physicist. Piccard set a world altitude record in 1931 at 15,781m/51,775', 9.806 miles in a hydrogen balloon with a pressurized "gondola". Bathyscaphes were analogous to his hydrogen balloon except it used aviation gasoline for buoyancy and a MUCH higher-pressure sphere for the manned “gondola” or cabin suspended below. Air ballast was vented at the surface to descent and iron shot was released to ascend.

---

The first bathyscaphe design was the FNRS-1 but was never built. The FNRS-2 was built in 1948 and was followed by FNRS-3 in 1980. Piccard built the Trieste in 1953 in Trieste Italy. The Archimède was built in 1961. The US Navy purchased the Trieste in 1958 for $250,000. A major refit was performed including a new gondola designed and built by Krupp in Germany.

The revised Bathyscaphe Trieste I was the first manned vehicle to reach the deepest known part in the ocean, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in 1960 at a depth of 10,916m/35,814'.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Trieste	12,200m/40,000'	1953	2-3	50,802Kg/56 US Tons*

* Including 129,461 Liters/34,200 gallons of aviation gasoline

The Trieste's last mission was to survey the wreckage of SSN-593 the USS Thresher which was lost off Massachusetts in 2,600m/8,400' in 1963. She is now on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy in Washington DC.

---

The Navy built DSV-1 Trieste II 1964 and used the original sphere (gondola) from Trieste I that reached the Challenger Deep. DSV is the naval designation for Deep Submergence Vehicle.

She was heavily modified in 1965-66 but saw little to no operational use. A third and almost total redesign took place in the late 1960s which included a reduced working depth of 20,000'.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Trieste II	12,200m/40,000'	1964	2-3	79,379Kg/87.5 US Tons*

* Including 253,623 Liters/67,000 gallons of aviation gasoline

Trieste II (model 3) aboard her support vessel, the floating drydock the White Sands.​

---

20,000' covers more than 92% of the world's ocean floors. The average depth of the ocean is about 3,688 meters/12,100'. The engineering, operational, and cost penalty for twice the depth rating is substantial and of marginal value to the Navy.

The first major operation for the final version of the Trieste II was to survey the wreckage of the USS Scorpion, SSN-589, that lost in 1968 off the Azores. The water depth was more than 3,000m/9,600'.

Trieste II’s last major mission was a clandestine survey the wreckage of the Soviet submarine K129 > off Hawaii in 1971. This was in preparation for the recovery attempt under the code name Project Azorian, incorrectly called Project Jennifer in the media.

​

Personal Sidebar​

I reported aboard the Trieste II for temporary duty in 1970 as an electronics technician and diver. She was completing an overhaul after the Scorpion operations at the Naval Ocean Systems Center in Port Loma in San Diego, previously the Naval Electronics Laboratory. This was a life altering opportunity.

Former Bathyscaph Trieste II Crew Member/Diver/Photographer

Greetings everyone! I was doing some research about the potential health affects of diving in AVGAS, and came across this site. I just joined your community and wanted to introduce myself. After boot camp, sub school and electronics tech training, my first assignment was as a crew member...

scubaboard.com

---

The Trieste II is on exhibit at the United States Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington.

Submersibles​

Hundreds of submersibles were built in the late 1950s through the 1970s. I will describe the boats that I think were the most interesting and important to the evolution of the technology. With luck, many more will be discussed in future posts.

Perry Submarine Builders​

Perry Submarine Builders was one of the first commercially available small manned submarines started in 1956. The "Cubmarine" (not a typo) boats were more submarine than submersible because virtually of of their systems were inside the pressure hull.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
PC1	46m/150'	1954	2	2,173 Kg/4,790 Lbs
PC2	183m600'	1956	2	2,173 Kg/4,790 Lbs

Perry Submarines became the largest manufacturer of submersibles in the world and is now Perry Baromedical, a major manufacturer of HBOT (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy) chambers.

---

Continued in the next post

 

[Akimbo]

Continued from previous post

---

Jacques Cousteau​

Jacques Cousteau’s Denise SP-350 set the standard for modern submersibles design in 1959. The pressure hull housed life support, controls, and space for two occupants but batteries, surface buoyancy systems, propulsion, and lighting were all outside the hull and covered in removable and floodable Fiberglas faring. The development of Denise is documented in Cousteau’s second book, The Living Sea.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Denise SP-350	400m/1,312'	1959	2	3,810 Kg/8,400 Lbs

The Denise being launched off the stern of the Calypso.​

---

Cousteau built two one person submersibles, the Sea Fleas, in 1966 to support filming operations.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
SP-500 1&2	500m/1,650'	1969	1	2,400 Kg/5,291 Lbs

US Navy​

The impact of the submarine Thresher loss in 1963 cannot be overstated. The US Navy began the ambitious SUBSAFE program to improve submarine safety and multiple projects to extend their search, rescue, and recovery capabilities.

US Navy Alvin-class submersibles including the Alvin DSV-2 and operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The Turtle DSV-3 and Sea Cliff DSV-4 were sister ships and all three have undergone extensive refits over the years. These stats are as of launching.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Alvin*	3,658Kg/12,000'	1964	3	6,804Kg/7.5 US Tons
Turtle**	1,981m/6,500'	1968	3	21,772 Kg/24 US Tons
Sea Cliff**	1,981m/6,500'	1968	3	21,772 Kg/24 US Tons

* Alvin underwent a major refit in 1973. A titanium hull and virtually all of her systems were replaced, increasing the depth rating to 4,500m/4,800'.

** The Turtle’s steel hull was replaced with titanium, increasing her depth rating to 3048m/10,000 feet.

*** Sea Cliff steel hull was replaced with a titanium, increasing her depth rating to 6,100m/20,000' in 1984. The Trieste II was retired from service.

One of the innovations introduced with the Alvin was syntactic foam, a buoyancy material consisting of glass spheres molded into custom-shaped blocks with epoxy resin. This allowed far greater weight of the pressure hull, batteries, and systems to operate at great depths. Syntactic foam obsoleted bathyscaphs, which used aviation gasoline for buoyancy.

Nemo​

The Nemo DSV-5 was built in 1970 pioneered the use of a transparent acrylic pressure hull. NEMO on display at the Seabee Museum in Oxnard, California where the acrylic hull technology was developed.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Nemo	183m/600'	1970	2	3,629 Kg/4 US Tons

The concept is widely used in modern deep submersibles like Triton Submarines' boats.

The Race Begins​

The defense industry was anxious to capitalize on these new funding sources and the enormous promise of exploiting the ocean’s resources.

Lockheed Missile & Space​

The Deep Quest was Lockheed’s first entry into deep ocean technology. She operated out of San Diego from a facility on Shelter Island off the Trans Quest support vessel. The Deep Quest is on exhibit at the United States Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Deep Quest	2,438Kg/8,000'	1967	4	47,174Kg/52 US Tons

The Deep Quest aboard her support vessel, the Trans Quest​

---

The Navy began the DSRVs (Deep-submergence rescue vehicle) program soon after the Thrasher disaster. The DSRV-1 Mystic and DSRV-2 Avalon was completed at the Lockheed’s Sunnyvale California facility in 1970. I had the opportunity to see them in 1969 thanks to a dive buddy that worked there.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
DSRV 1	1,524m/5,000'	1970	27	33,883Kg/37.35 US Tons
DSRV 2	1,524m/5,000'	1971	27	33,883Kg/37.35 US Tons

The DSRVs were operated by 3 crew members and could rescue 24 sailors in a stranded submarine at a time. Thankfully they were never used in a real emergency. The Mystic and Avalon were stationed at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego for rapid work-wide deployment by air. The Mystic is now on display at the Naval Undersea Museum, Keyport, Washington. The Avalon is on display at the Morro Bay Maritime Museum in Morro Bay, California.

The DSRVs played a prominent roll in the 1990 file, The Hunt for Red October.

---

Continued in the next post

 

[Akimbo]

Continued from previous post

---

General Dynamics​

General Dynamics Electric Boat Division has been the US Navy’s primary designer and builder of submarines since the early 1899. It was only natural for them to explore deep submersibles with he Star family of boats. The Star I was built in 1964 and used Allis-Chalmers fuel cells instead of batteries. The Star II was built in 1966 and the Star III in 1966,

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Star 1	200'	1963	1	2,750 Lbs
Star 2	1,200'	1966	2	4,536 Kg/5 US Tons
Star 3	2,000'	1966	2	9,525 Kg/10.5 US Tons

The Star III Submersible is on display at Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Birch Aquarium.

North American Rockwell​

Rockwell built the Beaver Mark IV was also know as the Roughneck. ScubaBoard’s @Sam Miller II was the DSO (Diving Safety Officer) for many years. She operated out of Rockwell’s facility in the Long Beach California port.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Beaver	610m/2000'	1968	4	15,422/17 US Tons

The Beaver’s 610m/2000' operating depth and was one of the first submersibles to have a diver lockout compartment. She was eventually acquired IUC (International Underwater Contractors) and is now at the Man in the Sea Museum in Panama City Florida.

Westinghouse​

Westinghouse’s Deep Star 4000 was designed by Jacques Cousteau and built by Westinghouse in 1965. She had a 1,220/4,000' working depth.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Deep Star 4000	1,219m/4,000'	1965	3	8,165Kg/9 US Tons

Deepstar 4000 1968

Deepstar 4000 was a rather well-known submersible that operated between 1965 and 1972, mostly under lease by the navy. It was designed by Jacques Cousteau, and built by Westinghouse. Having an association with Cousteau lent Deepstar a certain amount of cachet, which resulted in more new coverage...

scubaboard.com

Reynolds Aluminum​

Reynolds built the Aluminaut in 1964. She was unusual for a submersible because she supported long duration dives with up to 7 people, 3 crew and 3-4 scientists. This required food storage and preparation and sanitary facilities that normal submersibles do not have.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Aluminaut	4,572m/15,000'	1964	9	68.9mt/76 US Tons

She was built by General Dynamics Electric Boat with a test depth of 4,600m/15,000' with an all-Aluminum hull. She was used to locate and recover the atomic bomb lost off Palomares Spain when a B-52 bomber crashed. She also recovered DSV-2 Alvin when the lifting gear failed in the support ship. Alvin sank unmanned in 1,500m/4,900'.

Grumman Aircraft​

The Ben Franklin, or Grumman/Piccard PX-15, was a collaboration with Jacques Piccard, the son of August Piccard and one of the crew that set the depth record in the Challenger Deep in the Trieste. She was built to study the Gulf Stream on the east coast of the US. Like the Aluminaut, she was designed for extended missions with 6 crew and 1,200m/4,000' crush depth. She on exhibit at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Ben Franklin	1,220m/4000'	1968	6	12,973 Kg/14.3 US Tons

International Hydrodynamics​

Hyco or International Hydrodynamics of North Vancouver, British Columbia made the Pisces deep submersibles in the 1960s and 70s. Pisces boats were very well designed and Pisces IV and Pisces V continue to operate Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Pisces I	355m/1,200'	1965	2	7.5
Pisces II	972m/2,600'	1968	2/3	12.5
Pisces III	1,097m/3,600'	1969	2/3	12.5
Pisces IV	1,981m/6,500'	1971	3	10
Pisces V	1,981m/6,500'	1973	3	10
Pisces VI	2530m/8,300'	1976	3
Pisces VII	1,981m/6,500'	1976	3
Pisces VIII	1,006m/3,300'	1976	3
Pisces IX	2,530m/8,300	Unbuilt	3
Pisces X	1,006m/3,300'	1976	3
Pisces XI	1,981m/6,500'	1976	3

Edwin Link​

Edwin Link invented flight simulators in the 1920s and became famous and wealthy from the Link Trainer. He became interested in ocean research after selling his company in 1954. He conducted some of the first open sea saturation dives in 1962 and built the Deep Diver 1967. He built the Johnson Sea Link in 1971. Sadly he lost his son in a entanglement accident on the Johnson Sea Link in 1973.

	Depth:	Launch Date:	Crew Size	Displacement:
Deep Diver	355m/1,200'	1967	4	7,484Kg/8.25 US Tons
Johnson Sea Link	305m/1,000'	1971	4	8,618 Kg/9.5 US Tons

References:
Seven Miles Down: The Story of the Bathyscaph Trieste by Jacques Piccard and Robert S. Dietz, 1962

Manned Submersibles by R. Frank Busby, 1976

The Deep Submersible by Richard D. Terry, 1966

---

End of Multipart post

 

[tursiops]

Attached is a PhD thesis that bears on this thread.

ABSTRACT​

FROM COUSTEAU TO CAMERON: A QUADRANT MODEL FOR UNDERSEA MARINE RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE ASSESSMENT​

Karen M. Kohanowich, Ph.D. George Mason University, 2016​

Dissertation Director: Dr. E.C.M. Parsons​

​

The oceans are of great importance to society, but their visual opacity, corrosive chemical composition, and great pressure at depth make them one of the most challenging and hostile environments in which to conduct research. Many important marine science questions require data that is gathered in situ—much like that required for biological and geological fieldwork—to fully understand marine ecosystems and the interactions within them. This research, often referred to collectively as ‘submersible science,’ requires undersea systems (including human-occupied, robotic, and autonomous vehicles) that are beyond the ability of a single university or sponsor to support, but not costly enough to warrant the attention and rigor that is applied to more expensive systems such as ships or satellites. As a result, many U.S. scientists are faced with a challenging and distributed system for obtaining access to these tools, especially since a U.S. government marine research organization that supported many of these systems was discontinued in 2014. The U.S. marine research community has conducted numerous xxiii studies to address these submersible science infrastructure needs, but the studies have focused on assessing scientific priorities and infrastructure value in addressing those priorities, and have not considered the causative dynamics of economic and societal contributions to infrastructure sustainment. This study introduces a quadrant model that provides the framework to consider technical, operational, functional, and societal influences on the sustainment of U.S. undersea marine research infrastructure. It tests the model using the case of U.S. humanoccupied submersibles which, from Jacques Cousteau’s diving saucer Denise to James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenger, have experienced practically a full technological lifecycle within our lifetime, and have been subject to a wide range of program influences. Results include a model that features a quasi-quantitative visualization tool; validation of the model for use in further study; demonstration of the importance of societal and behavioral factors on human-occupied research submersible sustainment, and insights into U.S. marine research infrastructure dynamics.​

​

 

[Akimbo]

Results include a model that features a quasi-quantitative visualization tool; validation of the model for use in further study; demonstration of the importance of societal and behavioral factors on human-occupied research submersible sustainment, and insights into U.S. marine research infrastructure dynamics.

Sadly, manned submersibles are an extremely expensive and labor intensive tool that requires a large support ve$$el. I doubt they will be a viable tool for much longer given the cost, limited bottom times, and risk.

ROVs (Remote Operated Vehicle) and AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) keep getting better and cheaper. I believe that we have seen the pinnacle of their use and development.

 

[Jared0425]

I was reading about the first manned bathysphere in the 1930s. I read the account of them thinking that Titanic wasn't on the bottom because the density of the water would be greater than that of the hull. Another one was that the Atlantic Ocean was a lifeless desert incapable of supporting life.

I went on a history kick in the first deep sea shipwreck ever found (beyond the light zone). And that goes to USS Scorpion and then the Thresher and then the Soviet K-129. The first civilian ship located was the Titanic in 1985 (Though HMS Hectate claims to have had a sonar return in 1977), followed by a slew of military and civilian ships after 1985. I know that the military probably was picking up deep wrecks in the 1950s and 60s, but lacked the wherewithal to investigate them.

 

[Akimbo]

I was reading about the first manned bathysphere in the 1930s.

For other readers, the Bathysphere was was designed in 1928-29 by Otis Barton, an American engineer. Barton collaborated with William Beebe who was a naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, and entomologist with the New York Zoological Society. Together they set a depth of 923m/3,028' in 1934.

The Bathysphere, not to be confused with Bathyscaph or any form of a submersible, was a steel sphere with 3 small view ports an access hatch that was suspended by a steel cable and winch.

William Beebe is on left and Otis Barton is on the right. The flanged hatch cover is at the Lower left and you can see two of the three small viewports to the back.​

---

An umbilical provided telephone communications to the surface. The sphere was negatively buoyant so a broken cable would have been a death sentence for both men.

The technology for conical viewports was decades away so they used very thick and small flat quartz ports. This is an illustration of a modern conical viewport:

The same design is used in recompression and saturation chambers except it is reversed so the largest diameter is toward the inside. The thin flange held by bolts is just a retainer. The original design didn't use an O-ring and just depended on a lightly greased "seal between the conical acrylic port and the metal hull. I believe the first time this design was used was on August Piccard's first Bathyscaph, the FNRS-2.

 

[lexvil]

With the last ones don’t let anyone topside owe you money! An earlier post was off on “Point Loma.

 

[Jared0425]

@Akimbo,

Where any dives conducted on deep shipwrecks using the bathysphere? I heard a story about a prototype slamming into the hull of the Lusitania because of the currents. I know Triest had one heck of a time controlling itself on the Scorpion wreckage.

 

[Akimbo]

Where any dives conducted on deep shipwrecks using the bathysphere?

The "bathysphere" is specifically the one used by Barton and Beebe, so it was not used for salvage. However, one atmosphere observation bells have been used on a number of famous gold salvage jobs including the SS Egypt in 1922 and the RMS Niagara in 1940. These bells were more cylindrical with the one person standing and looking out through viewports all around the upper portion.

@happy-diver sent me a vintage copy of GOLD FROM THE SEA. The Epic Story of the "Niagara's" Bullion. by James Taylor which is much appreciated. It described the salvage in great detail.

The Italian Galeazzi Butoscopic Turret was still being sold in the 1960.

They were similar to the bells used on the Egypt and Niagara. Here is an image from the Undersea Industry catalog, a short-lived division of Scubapro.

Another bell was the McCann Rescue Chamber used to rescue men from the sunken USS Squalus (SS-192) submarine. We were still training on the McCann bell in the 1970s. The DSRVs obsoleted them but the Navy still had them onboard their newest generations ASRs (Auxiliary Submarine Rescue vessel) well into the early 1990s.