Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: KEN MARTINDALE (was Big Motor..)

["Captain Nemo" <vulcania@interpac.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael B. Holt" <mholt@richmond.edu>
To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2000 1:35 AM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: KEN MARTINDALE (was Big Motor..)


" I used to look at Disney's boat and shudder.  Verne's Nemo was  lucky no
one thought of hydrophones."

Ha!  For real!  Harper Goff wasn't worried at all about noise abatement, was
he!  ;-)

"But it really is beautiful, kinda like a Lamborghini."

Yeah, I know what you mean.  To me it kind of looks like a cross between a
shark and a crocodile.  It's got a personality; a life of it's own: more
like a creature than a machine.  Very sinister looking.  But I think that's
always been part of the attraction of submarines for me: they are stealthy
and sinister: they lurk low in the water; disappear at will, and reappear
unexpectedly.  Subs have a kind of freedom and power the child in me finds
appealing, I guess; and the Disney Nautilus has more of that than any
submarine I know of.    It's a work of art and an engine of destruction;
awesome, and at the same time, strangely beautiful.  It exemplifies what
people mean when they say something is "bad" but mean it is really, really
good.  It's hard to describe in words.  It's something that, if I have to
explain it, the listener probably won't understand.  One either "gets" what
the Nautilus is all about, or he doesn't.  (Most people I've met "get it",
but believe me, some don't.)  But all I know is I really love that sucker.
Been that way ever since I first saw it as a kid in '54.  And 34 years
later, when I was actually building what was supposed to be a high
performance minisub, something inside told me to shelve that project and
build the Nautilus.  And there was no way I could say no.   Funny, huh?

Pat