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

["Rick and Marcia" <empiricus@telus.net>]

Thanks for the heads-up, Rob.  I learned about FLIP when I was a boy. I
thought it was one of the coolest things to grace the waves.  I think it's
become an icon in many a psubber's mind.

Rick L


----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Ossian" <rob_neptune@yahoo.com>
To: "PSUBS.org dist group" <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 7:10 AM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Fred N. Spiess, submariner and maritime research
scientist passes on at 86


> 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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