Work Beneath the Waves

Some 3,000 ft. below the surface of the Atlantic, off the northern coast of Florida, the creature peered inquisitively through the dark and murky waters, groping for the ocean bottom. Sweeping its searchlight back and forth like a baleful eye, it spotted a smooth black surface below. Touching down gently, it began to creep along on wheels, stopping occasionally to pick up chunks of black rock with its two 9-ft. arms. Finally, it slowly rose to the surface, its mission accomplished and its curiosity temporarily satisfied.

The strange creature of the deep was the Reynolds Metals Co.'s Aluminaut, a man-made sea monster that is helping scientists to unlock the secrets of the sea. On its mission off Florida, it discovered a 100-mile by 150-mile area of -'pavement" apparently swept clean by Gulf Stream currents. Analysis of the 600 Ibs. of ore that Aluminaut brought to the surface indicated that most of the pavement below consisted of a good grade of manganese oxide that might some day be mined commercially.

Bottom Ignorance. The discovery of valuable ore so close at hand is an ironic reminder of how little man knows about the oceans around him. Although scientists have photographed and successfully mapped the hidden backside of the moon, 240,000 miles distant, and made other great strides millions of miles away in space, they have taken only faltering steps in the nearby depths of the seas. No known point on earth lies more than seven miles beneath the surface of the ocean, yet not much more than 5% of the ocean bottom has been explored.

Man can no longer afford the luxury of ignorance about the ocean bottom. Marine "farming" of fish and plant life may eventually be essential to feed the world's burgeoning population. As deposits of minerals, oil and gas are depleted, the virtually untapped resources lying on and beneath the ocean floor become increasingly attractive to industry. In 2,500,000 sq. mi. of offshore area, the U.S. alone has petroleum reserves estimated at 3.2 trillion bbl.

The expanding science of oceanology, still largely dependent on instrumented probes from surface ships and buoys for undersea investigations, has increased the demand for manned exploration of the depths. And spurred by the need of effective submarine rescue craft and anti-submarine-warfare (ASW) systems, the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office has been financing and encouraging the development of devices that enable men to experiment and work far beneath the waves, even at depths where pressure would crush a conventional submarine.

It is this rising interest in the potential of the seas that has in the past few years spawned the Aluminaut and newer and even more bizarre and sophisticated undersea craft that can carry men into the ocean depths and sustain them there for days and even weeks.

In addition to General Motors' Deep Ocean Work Boat (see opposite page), a sleek, manipulator-equipped craft that will support two men under water for 65 hours, some of the more advanced submersibles are:

> The Perry-Link Deep Diver, a 22-ft., 8 1/4-ton submersible that can operate at a depth of 1,350 ft. for as long as twelve hours, moving up, down, forward, backward and sideways. It has a forward pilot's compartment and a separately pressured divers' compartment that enables it to discharge and pick up divers far below the water's surface. When pressure in the divers' compartment has been built up to equal the water pressure outside, a hatch drops open, enabling the divers to depart. When they come back, they can eat and rest in the still-pressurized compartment and then return to work in the watery depths without ever having to undergo a time-consuming decompression process.

> Westinghouse's Cachalot consists of a pressurized "dormitory" and a diving bell that is lowered from the side of a barge to as far as 600 ft. below the surface, carrying divers in a pressurized chamber. Under water, the divers can emerge through a bottom hatch, work outside from two to six hours, then return to the diving chamber. Still pressurized, the bell is hoisted back on deck. There it is attached to the roomier dormitory, where the divers can eat and sleep, still under pressure, before returning to the depths. Using this system, Cachalot divers can work steadily for as long as a week without having to go through decompression.

> Lockheed's Deep Quest is the most sophisticated of the new submersibles, combining Aluminaut's size and ability to descend to great depths with Deep Diver's capability of discharging and retrieving underwater divers. The 40-ft., 50-ton craft can operate at a depth of 8,000 ft. with a crew of four and is designed to carry a Cachalot-type chamber that can accommodate four additional divers in its stern compartment. It uses spacecraftlike water-jet thrusters to hover in place and can tilt itself some 30DEG fore and aft and 10DEG sideways--useful for settling gently on an underwater slope. Deep Quest's two manipulator arms can each grasp as much as 500 Ibs. of material at a time off the ocean floor and tuck it into two squirrel-cheek spaces on either side of the craft's bow.

> General Dynamics' Star II and Star III are versatile two-man submersibles that can be equipped with manipulators that operate like a hand or are fitted to become a drill, a saw, a wrench or a grapple. They are equipped with advanced electronics, TV cameras and side-looking sonar. They can remain under water for from eight to twelve hours. Designed for work on the Continental shelves, the Stars have been used for acoustical research, archaeological investigation, and pictorial surveys of underwater cables to check for signs of deterioration.

More complex submersibles are on the way. Lockheed is building a DSRV, or Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle, which will operate at depths as great as 20,000 ft. and be equipped with a pressure chamber large enough to handle four divers. DSRV can be flown to the site of distressed submarines or other submersibles, where it can descend and mate with an escape hatch on the sub, allowing the stranded crew to come aboard.

Encouraged by the performance of the submersibles, the Navy has ordered the world's first nuclear-powered research submersible, the NR-1. The new craft, which is being built by General Dynamics, will sustain a crew of seven underwater for at least 30 days, will be independent of surface support, and will operate at "very great" (but classified) depths. It will contain the most advanced sensory and ocean surveillance systems known, be designed for convenient underwater pickup and discharge of divers, and will even have outside electrical outlets, enabling divers to use insulated power tools for their tasks on the ocean bottom. And it will represent another long step toward the day when man, perhaps equipped with artificial gills, will literally live and work on the ocean floor.

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