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Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: high speed subs
Phil - Your Museum Idea sounds incredibly cool. I'm going to buy an extra
lottery ticket today, so if I win, I can be a silent benefactor.
Keep up the good work
Greg
----- Original Message -----
From: Phil Nuytten <72020.572@compuserve.com>
To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2000 2:11 AM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: high speed subs
> 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
>