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Perhaps I am too sensitive to these things, but I have to say that I'm
not impressed with this article. In my
opinion the author didn't convey this as a serious experience and the fact that
he ran into a number of issues during his dive I think is
unfortunate.
You can kind of get a flavor of where the
article is heading when the author leads off with this
comment.
"It's beyond cool....now if it only came
with torpedoes"
First, the author describes an apparent
hatch leak.
Ragan's disembodied voice comes over the
radio: "What's that sound?"
"Just a little water," I reply. "No big
thing." The cold stream hits my
neck and runs down my back. The
seat of my jeans absorbs it like a Depends
adult undergarment. Water
pools around my shoes. Apparently the gusher
isn't going to go away, no
matter how long I try to ignore it. Before
I squeezed inside his
one-person Kittrege (sic) K-250 submarine (named
for designer George Kittrege
(sic)), Ragan warned me that on this winter
day the O-ring would be cold and
inflexible.
Next, the author describes getting
hung-up.
I'm just spinning in place. From the
muddy 3 foot view through the
porthole between my legs, it's obvious we're
not moving forward. Then
I spot the problem. "Uh, it looks like
we're hung up on something
down here," I say. "Something metal.
Looks like a milk crate." To
work the submarine off, I try to ascend a
bit, then I try rocking the
submarine from side to side ever so
slightly. But I end up either
still spinning or dragging the crate
forward and kicking up enough
silt to muddy the view. Eventually, I
abandon all hope and radio
Ragan that I'm blowing the
tanks.
Finally, the author ends the article with
this exchange, using a paragraph heading of "Sub
Par".
"You did better than most of my students,"
Ragan says once
I've forced open the
hatch.
"Come on. I couldn't even steer the
damn thing."
"It wasn't your fault," he says.
"The wind was pulling my boat, and that
was too much for the submarine to
overcome. Also you didn't panic when
the water was running
in."
"Pouring
in."
"Whatever. I feel comfortable
signing you off.
Congratulations."
If he's comfortable, then I'm
comfortable. Drenched, freezing, but
comfortable. Just get me out
of this thing and back into a real
boat.
I'm not sure this puts Ragan's business,
or small recreational subs, in their best light. Unfortunately, you never
know where a reporter or editor is going to take a story ahead of time.
And to be fair, alot of times an editor will dictate to a reporter how they want
the story framed.
Just my
opinion.
Jon