 The time is December 1964, the place 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the sea off San Clemente Island. The sea is no longer a fence impregnable, or man's control is now pressing beyond the shore and into the very depths of the dark blue ocean. The civilian and military implications of this nation's deep ocean research are far-reaching. Once we understand the problems of interspace, the magnificent resources of the oceanic world will become available to mankind, and the flexibility and power not now adequately possessed by any navy in the world will be realized. But before this can become a reality, we must develop the tools and techniques man will need to live and work in the deep ocean environment. One tool is the submersible, the forerunner of which is Captain Jacques Cousteau's Sucu, or diving saucer, called Denise. The Sucu, by arrangement with the Westinghouse Corporation, was one of four submersibles to participate in a two-week diving operation conducted by the U.S. Naval Ordnance Test Station. We're going topside. Turn off starboard and photo light. Keeper at a 55-degree angle with a heading of 140 degrees. During the diving operation, the capabilities of manned and unmanned submersibles for deep ocean search and recovery and for the specialized work of submarine rescue were demonstrated. The three other submersibles involved in the diving operation were designed and developed by the Naval Ordnance Test Station. These included a two-man research vehicle called Deep Jeep, a small two-man test vehicle designated Moray, and Curve, a surface-controlled research and recovery system. At the diving site were two support craft and the Knotts Underwater Operations Vessel YFU-53, Control Center for the submersible operation. Each day's activities would begin with the arrival at the diving site of visiting personnel from the Bureau of Naval Weapons, the Navy's Special Projects Office, and other interested groups. Aboard the control vessel, these interested observers could watch all surface activities and monitor on television screens most of the underwater work. The YFU-53 is an outgrowth of the Naval Ordnance Test Station's anti-submarine weapons development work. Its prime functions are deep ocean recovery and various types of deep ocean engineering. It is an extensively instrumented work platform equipped, as this model shows, with a frame which can be lowered to depths to 6,000 feet. Specialized instrumentation mounted on the frame include television cameras, still and motion picture cameras, lights, a high-resolution scanning sonar, and a lariat or snare. The snare is used to recover ordnance lost on the ocean floor. Here at the Control Console is the frame operator monitoring the recovery on a television screen. This vessel, with its vast array of specialized equipment and instrumentation, enables knots to perform an unusual amount of useful work on the deep ocean floor. For the submersible operation, the deep operating frame was specially rigged with a mock-up of a submarine hatch bale, a simulated submarine hatch, a spear, and a dummy torpedo. The frame was then lowered to the ocean floor 1,000 feet beneath the Control Vessel. It was now to serve as a test platform for the manned submersibles, Sukup, and deep jeep. As these preparations proceeded, approximately 300 yards away, launch preparations were underway aboard the Birch Tide, the support vessel for the French diving saucer. Piloting the Sukup was Dr. André Leban, director of Captain Cousteau's scientific organization. His companion is Captain George Bond, medical officer in charge of C-LAB, another of this country's man-in-the-sea projects. The second crew member of the Sukup usually was a knotsman who acted as observer for the pilot. The man descending into the sea to explore and perform useful work requires a submersible capable of mobility and precise maneuvers. Sukup, designed specifically for undersea exploration and for only limited bottom sampling, provided useful information on underwater control when it attempted tasks demanding more complex maneuvers. In this dive, it was intended that the Sukup would demonstrate the man submersible's ability to locate an object on the ocean floor and perform a recovery even though the vehicle itself cannot lift a heavy object. To fulfill this assignment, the submersible was equipped with a knots-designed inflatable recovery device. It consists of a clamp, a gas generator, and an inflatable bag. Sukup, Sukup, this is topside, continue dive and start your search pattern. We're standing by to make visual contact with your approach to target area. Sukup, you're on your own, over. The object that the Sukup was to locate and recover was a dummy torpedo equipped with both a 9 and a 45 KC pinger. The Sukup, equipped with a pinger receiver, descended to the sea floor and slowly rotated to acoustically locate the torpedo. It took the submersible between 10 to 15 minutes to determine in which direction the torpedo lay. Within approximately five minutes, the torpedo then was visually located. The topside, we're above the torpedo and ready to attach device, over. Once the clamp is positioned on the torpedo, an eccentric dog mechanism precludes its coming off. Roger, topside, device attached, over. Roger, Sukup, looks good, disconnected. Roger, topside, disconnecting and moving away, over. As the submersible moved away, a cable attached to the vehicle's mechanical claw triggered an explosive valve releasing hydrazine into a reactor chamber, which generates the gas that inflates the bag. The torpedo, weighing 200 pounds, was lifted to the surface in approximately 10 minutes. Nuts is developing a recovery device similar to this one, but capable of a 500 pound lift. Having successfully fulfilled its first assignment, the Sukup approached the frame beneath the nuts underwater operations vessel. It was questionable that the submersible could accomplish this next task, but by careful manipulation of its two water jet controls, the vehicle was maneuvered onto the simulated submarine hatch. By just such a maneuver, some future man submersible may settle on the hatch of a disabled submarine and rescue entrapped submariners. Now the Sukup will pick up the spear with its mechanical claw, an attempt to maneuver that would be required if a downed submarine were lying at an odd angle. In such a case, a submersible probably would have to attach a line to the hatch bail and winch itself into position on the hatch. The Sukup again was able to perform this precise maneuver. During the two weeks of diving, the Sukup usually was placed in the water first. Following its lift out, the nuts submersible, Deep Jeep, then would be sent to the bottom. Deep Jeep is a two-man research vehicle capable of depths to 2,000 feet. Basically it is a five-foot steel sphere with a battery pack at its bottom and a syntactic foam float at its top. Weights held on by electromagnets encircle the bottom of the vehicle and are used for ballast variation. The chemicals used in Deep Jeep's air purification system provide the vehicle an operating time of four to six hours and up to 60 hours in an emergency. Unlike the Sukup whose passengers recline, the Deep Jeep operators sit upright. Oh, can you read me, Deck? Okay, Deep Jeep, complete your check-off list before you go out of water. Power on? Instruments working satisfactory? Environmental system working satisfactory? Deep Jeep is designed as a work and research vehicle. Its potential uses include performance of manned work in deep water, geological and topographical surveys of the sea floor, and investigations of ocean phenomena such as the deep scattering layer which acts as a false bottom for sonar signals. Having watched the launch of Deep Jeep from the deck of the YFU-53, observers returned to the instrumentation room to monitor the submersibles maneuvers about the submerged frame. In this dive, Deep Jeep was to move several hundred yards away from the control vessel, then locate and home in on an acoustic pinger mounted on the frame. Communication with the surface ship is achieved with an ultrasonic telephone system which provides reliable communication at distances up to 2,000 yards. Two motors, located one on each side of the vehicle, can pivot simultaneously or separately about the vehicle's lateral axis. The submersible is maneuvered by altering the speed of these motors and the angle of each propeller. In fact, Deep Jeep's flight through liquid space is much like that of a helicopter. Affirmative, topside, this is Deep Jeep. We see the frame just below us. Moving in now, can you see us? Over. Roger Deep Jeep, I have you in sight. You're about 250 degrees from me approximately. Despite the fact the control systems of both the Sukup and Deep Jeep are considered to be somewhat primitive, the vehicles were found to be capable of the hovering and settling maneuvers required for submarine rescue work and for deep recovery operations. Ideally, man would like to do on the seafloor what he does on land, carry in some selected locale, or move rapidly to some distant area of interest. Submersibles like Deep Jeep and Sukup will enable man to familiarize himself with a particular area while submersibles like More will provide him a long range exploration capability. The concept of a small two-man submarine is not new, but the approach knots took when designing the torpedo-shaped Moray is. Instead of scaling down a submarine, knots applied the principles of torpedo design. Moray is a positively buoyant 33-foot-long vehicle with a body diameter of 64 inches. It was developed for use as a test platform for evaluating underwater techniques and devices such as sonar, underwater television cameras, navigation systems and power supplies. Encased within Moray's free-flooding fiberglass hull are two five-foot pressure-resistant spheres. One houses electronic gear, the other a crew of two. There are no viewing ports in the submersible. Instead, a high-resolution short-range sonar is used to detect and localize underwater objects. For positive close-range classification, a two-camera television system is used. One camera provides visibility at the surface through a forward viewing periscope, the other is a bottom viewing camera. A dead-reckoning navigation system provides continually updated information on the vehicle's position. The life support system was designed originally for the Mercury project. The system, modified to meet the requirements of an inner rather than an outer space capsule, provides Moray an operational endurance of 24 hours. A unique development area of the Moray program has been in buoyant materials. Within the Moray hull is a syntactic foam having a density of 41 pounds per cubic foot and a compressibility close to that of seawater. This material provides positive buoyancy to depths to 6,000 feet. Moray presently is propelled by a battery-operated torpedo motor that drives counter-rotating propellers. The vehicle's surface speed is six knots. Under water, Moray is capable of speeds to 16 knots. Its depth capability is 6,000 feet. Nice Gator 6-6, this is Nice Gator 6-5. We've leveled off at a sound rating of 15 feet. Our present course is 2-5-0. Standing by, over. Next 5, is it 6-6? Next run, 3-0-0. Feed A-1. Order depth 60 feet. Remain at depth 5 minutes or until your voltage drops. The 4th submersible to enter the sea during the two-week diving operation was the knots-developed, unmanned, cable-controlled underwater research vehicle called Curve. The sea is too vast and too deep a frontier to challenge with one system only. Both civilian and military operations within the aquatic environment will require vehicles capable of entering the ocean in all kinds of weather. Curve is such a vehicle. Powered and controlled from the surface, it effectively extends man's eyes, ears and hands into the depths of the sea. An outstanding advantage of Curve is its ability to remain continuously operative and underwater for extended periods. Curve's control cable is kept neutrally buoyant by stainless steel floats. Horizontal movements of the vehicle are controlled by port and starboard propellers. A vertical propeller controls dive and ascent. Curve's primary function is search and recovery for deep submergence operations to 2,000 feet. A secondary function is collection of data on bottom conditions. A console aboard the support vessel is the center of activity during all Curve operations. Through the use of a depthometer and altimeter, the vehicle is brought close to the bottom. In this dive, Curve was to demonstrate the search and recovery capabilities of an unmanned submersible. The object it was to locate was the dummy torpedo. At this stage of the search, Sonar provides the primary means for locating the torpedo. Curve is equipped with both an active and passive Sonar system, a television camera, lights and a camera for documentation. The Curve operator holds Curve on course until the torpedo is visible and classified on a television monitor. When Curve's hydraulic claw has been securely locked on, both the vehicle and the recovered object can be brought to the surface. Or the claw can be ejected and a hardware retrieving buoy released. In this case, the claw was disengaged from the torpedo. For Curve, an extension of man and Sukku, representing man himself, now were to attempt a rendezvous in the sunless sea depths. A cooperative operation involving two such vehicles is unique in itself. But it becomes even more significant when one remembers that lying at the bottom of the sea is more than 71% of this planet's land. Land for man to explore, to work and make productive. According to the biblical chapter Genesis, man's heritage is the sea. But to claim the riches of this great cornucopia and rest from its depths any threat to his nation's security, man must develop a technology oriented entirely to the world of liquid space beneath its surface. Sukku, Deep Jeep, More and Curve are but first experimental steps in this challenging effort. For more information on Sukku, visit www.sukku.com