to everyone who was at the convention, thank you again, so much, for your openness, your friendliness, and your generosity last weekend. it was great to meet everyone. i got the chance to talk to a few of you in depth and on the record, but would like to follow-up with a few questions for everyone.
to everyone who wasn't there, i'm matthew richter, and i'm working on a feature-length article about home-submarine-builders and would love to get as much input as i can. i'm attached a short questionnaire to the bottom of this email and would love it if everyone would take a second to jot down some thoughts.
would you mind taking a second to answer a couple of short questions? if these questions lead you to other thoughts you'd like to share, fantastic. if you don't want to answer the longer questions, please answer the "nuts and bolts" type stuff and send it back anyway. thanks again, and i look forward to sharing the whole story with you all as soon as it's published.
1) Are you currently building a submarine?
I am currently involved to one level or another with the overhaul of one submarine, and planning for two more, with new construction due to begin shortly.
2) Have you already built a submarine?
I'm going to skew the percentile here, as I built subs professionally for some years at the famous Perry Oceanographics shops in Riviera Beach, Florida. Just for fun, I'll try to remember the ones I had my hands on. Let's see, there was PC08, PC-9 & PC-1401, then PC-1201 & PC-1202. On top of that were the diving bells and decompression chambers that we built. Additionally, over the years, I have been involved with several major overhauls of subs, as well, which is rather like building them, only without the weld shop. Included in that list are both Johnson SeaLinks at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Inst., PC-1204 in Europe and several of Hyco's products, including Pisces 5 & 6, Leo and the Aquarius that we had so much fun with in Vancouver.
3) Have you ever been submerged in a submarine? If yes, what was it like?
Nine different vehicles (now 10, as I can cheat a little and say I piloted a DeepWorker), 1,400 or so dives, 3,500 to 4,000 hours underwater. Yes, I have been submerged in a submarine. I worked in them, on them and around them for many years. Describing that would take more time than we have. In the beginning, it is all about the equipment, all about remembering things and taking care of all the little details and absorbing the responsibility of other people's lives. Eventually, you relax somewhat, as any pilot in an airplane would do. Looking out, with the sub familiar and comfortable around you, is a unique experience. We didn't have a lot of time for play, but that only counts when you think of work as work. For us, it was a sort of fiercely demanding play, a way to define ourselves. No one did what we did because they had to. They did it for themselves, and for each other.
4) How old were you when you started designing submarines?
Hooked on JY Cousteau in my early teens.
5) How old were you when you began building?
I owned my first sub when I was 22 years old (in Nashville, Tennessee, of all places). Even then, I'd already been hooked on subs for, oh, seven or eight years, I'd guess. Maybe longer.
6) What color are your eyes? (I ask this because, did you notice, there's a crazily high percentage of blue-eyed people in the group)?
Blue, of course.
7) What special features does your submarine have?
My personal submersible is a Kittredge design, which I have upgraded pretty massively. New propulsion, ballast system and batteries come to mind.
8) What special features did your "dream" or fantasy submarine have?
My next sub has an dome segment acrylic viewport in the nose (38" outside diameter), and a dome style hatch rather like the DeepWorkers you saw in Vancouver. There are not special features, as such; just basic requirements of a modern life supports system, thru-water communications and some self-rescue widgets here and there.
9) Describe your "perfect dive." What are you doing? Where? With whom? This could be any level of reality or fantasy at all-- from inspecting pipeline to rescuing underwater princesses.
I took the lovely blonde wife of the Swedish Ambassador to the UAE on a dive once in the Persian Gulf. That was a treat. Other special dives have more to do with moments than dives. There was a night in the North Sea when the sub I was running (PC-1204, as it happens) did everything I asked. We were perfectly neutral, the currents were low and we had good viz--the dive itself was perfect, and memorable. I dove another sub in the Gulf of Suez (many times, in fact). That location was near the site where the Cousteau team performed the Conshelf II experiment, including an underwater garage for the Diving Saucer (which really got me hooked as a teen-ager). I wrote Cousteau about that, and had a nice letter in reply (never met him, though, which is one of my big regrets). Today? Well, going deep again in my own boat ranks right up there with the "perfect dives" of the past. Truthfully, subs are good when they are good and bad when they are bad. It's l! ike any job. The best dive you ever had might very well be the last one you did. I got to dive a Deepworker, which was fun and instructive, and Aquarius, which was old home week for me, as I piloted it in the Gulf of Mexico (136 dives, I think). Right now, they're the best two I've had lately. Now, all I have to do is figure out where my next best one is going to come from.
10) What color is your (either real or fantasy) submarine?
I'm a creature of habit (as are all pilots). Perry painted their subs yellow, Hyco tended to white, red or combinations thereof. Both are there for surface visibility, so I'll be in there somewhere when the time comes. My current sub is yellow outside and white inside.
11) What excites you about submarines? What scares you about them?
The satisfaction of making a complex machine work well in the most hostile (non-volcanic, that is) environment on earth is a good feeling. To tell the truth, nothing frightens me about subs, as long as they are designed properly, built to those designs and operated within the pre-set parameters. With those provisos, I'll take them anywhere and do anything. My most frightening moments came from outside forces; crappy weather, poor decisions on the ship...things I couldn't control.
12) How old are you?
62
13) Are you a SCUBA diver?
Since I was 16.
14) Do you live near a large body of water?
East coast of Florida within spitting distance of the Gulf Stream.
I'm sure i'll end up with more questions. please let me know if i'm abusing the privilege of posting here, and feel free to email me at my real-world address at
matthew@xomonline.com
in fact, i don't want to clog up the PSUBS pipes with responses to this questionnaire. why don't you email me your answers directly instead of emailing back the whole list?
thanks
m
Matthew Richter
Seattle, Washington
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