Shipmates,
After 18 months of patient on-again, off-again, s-l-o-w- m-o-t-i-o-n
negotiations with several U.S. Navy organizations from Washington, DC to
Mississippi, I have finally closed the deal and taken physical possession of the
last remaining cache of original 1976 Busby books. If you already own a copy,
please do not order another one. This is an honor system. If you want a Busby,
please read every word of this e-mail and comply with all of the guidance. I
promised the Navy that you would comply with their requirements (no parties may
make a profit from these transactions), and I promised Ray that I would handle
the whole administration of this process through SeaLordOne@aol.com. Ray does
NOT want the psubs.org alias tied up with what he referred to as a "Busby
feeding frenzy". You may discuss the offer on the alias, this is not meant to
be censorship, but he does not want the whole process of asking questions,
making reservations, placing orders, confirming shipment, confirming receipt of
the books, etc. to clog up the site. If you piss off Ray...no Busby for you!
Forgive me if I am a little over-controlling in the details of this whole deal,
but I have to protect myself from being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the
process itself. I have to answer questions, receive reservations, box and mail
200 books to 200 locations, keep my promises to the Navy organizations (who
prefer to be "silent partners" in this deal), keep my promises to Ray...all
while working full time, traveling a lot, and raising a family. I am not going
to be able to give anyone any "special treatment". This will be a
one-size-fits-all operation. Ask your questions of SeaLordOne@aol.com, not
psubs.org. I do reserve the right to communicate with you through the site,
because there are so many of you, and you will all need the same information.
All that being said, here is the announcement I have been waiting 18 months to
make:
"On behalf of the leadership of Psubs.org (sponsor), the Office of the
Oceanographer of the Navy (donor), the Naval Oceanographic Office (donor), and
myself (deal-maker), I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of
approximately 200 "virgin" copies of R. Frank Busby's 764-page submarine classic
"Manned Submersibles"".
These are available from me for $5.00 US. The books are free to you (a gift
from the United States Government, brokered by me, distributed under the
sponsorship of Psubs), but I need a $5.00 post office money order from each of
you to cover the cost of boxing and shipping the book. I have a large supply of
books (193), but when they are gone, that is it. There are no more caches of
Busby's left.
The "Lost Busby's"
So, how did I get my hands on 193 Busby books? Serendipity...followed by
persistence. When I first joined this site, I was looking for a way to give
something back to the Psubs community. I initially thought I could do that by
describing my experience designing, building and operating a wet sub back in the
early 1970's: the Undaunted. But I soon realized that the Undaunted was far too
primitive to be of interest to the Psubber of today. So Plan B was to sell
photocopies of Busby Books. They were out of print and in the public domain, so
I sold them as a service to the Psubs community. But then a couple of Psubs
heavyweights challenged me: are you sure these are public domain? Are you
violating a copyright? I indicated that I would contact the Office of the
Oceanographer of the Navy to get the final word. I would do my homework. So
began the saga.
My contact at the Navy indicated that all the Navy's copies of Busby were long
gone, that Busby would not be re-printed, and that yes, it was in the public
domain. She encouraged me to make my grainy photocopies available to her too:
She received 6-8 requests a year for Busby's. She used to refer those folks out
to a Dive Shop in Maryland, that also sold grainy photocopies, but they had gone
out of business the year before. We even discussed putting Busby up on a
website. Then she left, and I began to interact with her replacement. He
worked with me for several months, and then started talking about rumors of
"Lost Busby's", a cache of Busby Books that had dropped out of the Navy
inventory system, but which could still well be at a satellite library somewhere
in the larger government library system.
My head was thinking "what in the hell have you been smoking, Chief?", but my
month was saying "Gee, Chief, can we follow up on that?". It sounded to me like
pure urban legend, perhaps generated by a cabal of bored government librarians
who had watched Indiana Jones too many times. But I had nothing to loose, so I
continued to work with the Chief. And lo and behold, the Chief was right all
along. The legend was true. He found the books at the Stennis Space Center
Library in Mississippi. It was then another 9 months of negotiating with my
contact there to get my hands on the books. But the whole Navy chapter is over
now. The story has many more sub-plots (no pun intended), but I won't go into
them here...they will make good bar-room stories at the Psubs Convention. I
have the books in my basement, and the Navy contacts wish to be "silent
partners". I have thanked them on behalf of the Psubs community. If you want a
Busby, here are the Conditions:
Conditions
1. One Busby per customer. Please do not order a Busby if you already have a
Busby (photocopies do not count against you...only actual books). This is an
honor system. (The 10 people who over the years bought my grainy Xerox copies
should contact me at once.)
2. You MUST not sell this Busby. This is the PRIME DIRECTIVE from the Navy
representatives. This is not a purchase from me, this is distribution of
surplus governmnet property to the public through the psubs.org website,
brokered by me. You may give the book away or turn it back into Psubs, but
neither I, nor you, are to profit financially from this donation of government
property. The Navy's greatest fear is that these books (which I, too, received
for free) will show up for sale on e-bay or alibris. I promised them that Psubs
was a tight-knit and honorable community, and that this would simply not happen.
They trusted me, now I am trusting you. Here are the procedures:
Procedures
1. I will not be taking "orders" until May. During the month of April I will
be taking "reservations" for orders only. No money changes hands in April. On
May 1st, I will count the reservations. If I have more Busby's than I have
reservations, I will invite everyone to send me their $5.00 US Post Office Money
Order, and I will mail everyone a book. But if I have more reservations than I
have Busby's, I will honor only those reservations with the highest priority.
Priority has nothing to do with how soon you place your reservation, only with
how long you have been a member of Psubs.
2. The priorities are as follows: High, Medium, Low. Low includes folks who
(1) are not currently members of the Psubs alias, or (2) joined the Psubs alias
after April 1, 2002. Medium includes those who joined the Psubs alias on April
1, 2002 or earlier. That includes almost the entire Psubs community. High
includes a small subset of Medium folks who are upgraded by Ray or myself. Ray
will assign the High priority to those who in his opinion have made significant
contributions to the site/organization over the last couple of years. The
"household names" on the site. I will assign the High priority to those 10
folks who paid me $75.00 for a grainy photocopy of Busby, only to now see me
handing out virgin originals for five bucks. I will also assign it to the 2-3
folks who are currently helping me field test my distribution system.
3. To make a reservation, send an e-mail to SeaLordOne@aol.com. [Do not sent
it to this e-mail address: this is my e-mail at work. I am running this Busby
Book operation from my e-mail at home. And not to worry, under current
government computer use policy, I am able to use my work computer for limited
personal uses, such as sending this post]. Reservations should include:
Name
Snail Mail Address
Priority Level (either Medium or Low- Only Ray or I can upgrade you to High)
Second Mailing (Yes or No- see the final paragraph under "suspicious souls")
There is no incentive for misrepresenting your priority level...Ray can verify
it if it becomes necessary. If we do not have enough books for all of the
Mediums, we will "cut" those who have been with the alias for the shortest
period of time. This is a seniority based system. I have some reservations
about Low priority customers complying with the Prime Directive of the Navy, but
I am also under an obligation to distribute these books rather than hold them,
so Low priority folks may very well receive books.
4. I will try to update you via the site on a weekly basis. How many
reservations have come in, how many books have gone out, that sort of thing.
Please be extremely patient with me. I have been working very hard to do a very
good thing for this community. There may be better ways to do all of this,
there are probably I's that are not dotted and T's that are not crossed...just
work with me here.
Other Stuff
A number of Psubbers have recommended adding side deals to this deal, mostly as
fund raisers. They want me to sell these for bigger bucks and give the money to
Psubs, for example. But as you see, that is not an option. I am not allowed to
charge you anything for these books, and you should not be selling them either.
I do not own these books. I am simply an "agent" for distributing Navy books
to private citizens. I simply ask $5.00 for shipping and handling.
I think I have covered everything. If not, I will be back. If I were selling
these things for market value (I have seen them on-line for $50-$75) there would
be Busby's for everyone. Demand would be suppressed by cost. But because I am
required by the Navy to give them out for free, folks who don't even know what a
Busby is will be ordering them. Human nature...Ces't la vie. But look on the
bright side. Once I flood the market with Busby's, and the number of Busby-less
Psubbers is probably less than 200, they will become common place. Most
Psubbers will have their own. Hopefully some folks will scan it and put it on a
website. There will probably be a lot of folks willing to loan theirs out. I
gave two to Ray for the Psubs library. Not having your own Busby won't be a
problem...they will be everywhere.
By the way, I indicated that these books are "virgin", even if they are 26 years
old, they have never been out of the box. That is mostly true. They all look
and even smell brand new (obviously stored in a climate controlled environment).
But about 5% of them have been damaged a bit. So a few of you "Lows" may get
the beat up ones. Sorry.
Too Good to be True?
One last thing. Do any of you suspicious types think you smell a scam here? A
guy claims to have 193 Busby Books in his basement, for God sakes. Busby books
are scarce as hen's teeth, and this guy claims to have the mother load in his
basement. He tells wild tales of "Lost Busby's.". He says the Navy guys want
to be "silent partners". Then he asks 200 people to mail him $5.00 each (I
believe that is a thousand dollars) before he sends them a book. I certainly
did not believe the "legend of the Lost Busby's" when I first heard about it.
Why should you?
If you are not suspicious, then fine. But if your are, and I can understand
that, here are some thoughts. First, I live in Fairfax County, Virginia. There
are other Psubbers around here. Anyone who is local is free to visit me at home
and see the mother load for himself, then report back to the group. While you
are here, you can also see the Undaunted, still sitting in my garage, and my
submarine library as well. I also have a nifty model of Disney's Nautilus, one
of the numbered 1,954 they built in 1954 when they released the movie.
Second, I told Ray I would snap a photo of the collection, for posting on the
internet. I will try to do that soon. Third, I will probably have delivered
two dozen books to "High Priority" Psubbers in April, including Ray, before I
ask for any money in May. They can verify the goods. Fourth, I suppose I could
arrange for two mailings. Once the reservations are all in and I know which 193
people will be placing orders, I can give everyone the choice of being in the
first or second ordering cycle. The "trusting souls" send in their money and
get their books first. Once the "suspicious souls" hear from the "trusting
souls" that the books have in fact come in, then the "suspicious souls" place
their orders and mail me their money in a second wave. So if you are a
"suspicious soul", just mark "second mailing-yes" when you make your reservation
(see above).
That is it, Shipmates. Start sending me your reservations today, to
SeaLordOne@aol.com. I have been working this deal for a long time now, and am
anxious to actually get the books out of my basement and into your hands.
Again:
Name
Snail Mail Address
Priority Level (either Medium or Low- Only Ray or I can upgrade you to High)
Second Mailing (Yes or No- see the final paragraph under "suspicious souls")
That's it!
Doug Farrow