Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Undersea telescope...

[VBra676539@aol.com]

Pat,

Interesting stuff. Two Americans tried something along the same lines using 
enormous, glass photographic plates in an open topped pressure vessel in the 
Bahamas. We went down every quarter or so with one of the JSLs with a 
transfer skirt attached to the lock-out hatch flange, mated to the 
experiment, equalized pressure and got out to exchange to plates. Man, that 
water is COLD at 2000 feet! They never found anything, by the way. Too 
shallow, maybe?

I had dinner once on Nadir, in Aberdeen. Our company used to charter her in 
the 70s when our contracts overloaded our hindquarters. We'd stick about 5 
tons of gear on board, drag one of the observation subs out and stick it on 
deck, and head for the hills. The ship's officers wore uniforms, as I recall, 
and the food was excellent.

Mind you, the Intersub fleet was well known for its food. All the ships had 
one registered chef and one cook and 2 or 3 stewards on board, just to take 
care us us cretins. It was like being on a sort of utility cruise ship with a 
big yellow submarine to play with and plenty to drink and eat when you got 
back from work. The French called it: "Monge, Plonge, Dormeir." If you don't 
speak it, say monjay, plonjay, doormay (eat, dive, sleep) over and over. 
That'll tell you what our schedule was like, so you can see why they took the 
trouble to keep us well fed and moderately drunk at night. I once worked 21 
days in a row without missing a dive, with the minimum bottom time being just 
over 5 hours and the maximum 9 1/2. Then, finally (according to my logs) a 
Force 9 gale came down from the NW and gave us 15-18 foot seas. What a break!

Vance