[PSUBS-MAILIST] Fred N. Spiess, submariner and maritime research scientist passes on at 86

[Rob Ossian <rob_neptune@yahoo.com>]

Heard some sad news today about Fred N. Spiess, a
Research scientist who briefly headed the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, has died
of cancer at the age of 86.

Spiess served in the Navy during World War II and was
stationed on a submarine in the Pacific. After the
war, he went on to earn his undergraduate degree from
UC Berkeley and a master's degree from Harvard
University before returning to Berkeley for a
doctorate in physics.

He designed and built instruments, took them to sea
for deployment and led numerous expeditions to
investigate the deepest parts of the world's oceans.

One of his greatest innovations was to co-invent the
enormous and ingenious research vessel FLIP, a
355-foot-long floating instrument platform.  This
enormous vessel could be towed or driven to a remote
ocean location, and then by flooding ballast chambers
within it's hull transfer the vessel's center of
gravity enough to transform the ship into a massive,
stable tower in the middle of the ocean.  

FLIP has made massive contributions in furthering
ocean research by creating a stable base for
scientific exploration on the rough seas.  It has also
been used in a variety of other programs including
geophysics, meteorology, physical oceanography,
non-acoustic ASW and in laser propagation experiments.
FLIP has operated in both the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans.

As a fellow submariner, and true maritime innovator
that I think would have fit in perfectly with the PSUB
community, I felt that he deserved a moment of
recognition for his contributions and achievements.

For those that are interested, here is some more
information on the pretty amazing FLIP:
http://www.mpl.ucsd.edu/resources/flip.intro.html



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