[PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: high speed subs

[Phil Nuytten <72020.572@compuserve.com>]

Hi, Vance:
        Just a quick vault-in on your "Submoray" thread . . .the China Lake
Nuke Hunter-Killer was actually called just 'Moray'. You were probably
thinking of "Submaray"  - Doug Privett's first 'Nekton' configuration sub.
It wound up being operated by Mart Toggweiller, from Long Beach. Lots of
good stories about Submaray!! I remember when Mart attempted to recover the
body of a drowned SCUBA diver off Catalina . . .he used a permanent magnet
mounted on a pole and clunked it onto the ex-diver's steel double 70's .
.then couldn't lift the diver and had no way to release him . . . high
sphincter-factor!
        Moray was quite a sub. Designed to hunt down and missilize the
other guy's nukes at  very high speeds . (.higher than you noted, Vance) it
was so top secret at the height of the Russky-baddie days that just knowing
about it could have got a guy some unwelcome attention from the men in
black suits ( no, not the extraterrestrial guys!) The personnel sphere was
a 60+" sphere ( two cast aluminum hemis bolted together) There were no
ports! The pilot operated the beast at high speed using a single monochrome
EOC television camera. The controls are a yoke and moveable column, almost
identical to an aircraft control system. The seat was out of a go-cart and
mounted right on the floor, so you wound up with your knees around your
ears . . .the entry hatch is small, 18 inches - I wonder how the test pilot
got his testicles thru' it - 'cause I guarantee they were of significant
size!! You can read a bit about Moray in Busby  and/or  in Will Foreman's
new book on the history of U.S. submersibles. Also check - out the China
Lake website - it's there also.
        When Moray was decomissioned, it was taken into a number of major
pieces and put out for bid at different times and at different places (
Seattle, San Diego, Hawaii) to make sure it could not be re-assembled.
Busby and I were hot on the case!! Frank used his contacts and I used mine.
The end of a long, involved story is that Moray is here . .all of her.
Hulls, 100 hp torpedo motor, counter rotating props, controls, the works! 
She is slated for the DEEP Foundation museum, but, ironically, China Lake
is starting their own museum and would dearly love to have her back. If
they are successful in putting up a good museum, we will consider making up
 a full scale model for our museum, and sending Moray home
        . Right now, it's snoozing beside "Deep Flight".  Interesting
things, these submersibles . . . and their builders.

Regards
Phil Nuytten