Lake claims a dreamer and submarine innovator

[shawl@torchlake.com (Jonathan Shawl)]

Traverse City Record Eagel         April 12, 1990
Lake claims a dreamer and submarine innovator

INTERLOCHEN – Carl Hardwicke was a mechanical engineer with a dream, and
with Gregory Hansen, his classmate from Michigan Technological
University’s Class of 1984, he almost made it happen.
But dream and dreamer perished Tuesday night in 40 feet of water at
Green Lake, just down the shore from the word-famous music camp.
Hansen, who escaped, was in fair condition in a Kalamazoo hospital on
Wednesday night.
The submarine Hardwicke died in was his brainchild, said Joyce Rix, who
lived next door to Hansen in Warren.  It was a three-passenger,
8-foot-long, 3 ˝-ton recreational sub.  The craft, called the Sneaker
100, made its public debut in January at the Detroit Boat and Fishing
Show at Cobo Hall.
“They were two wonderful young men with a wonderful dream,” said Rix.
In the last of several test dives – and before the eyes of Hardwicke’s
parents, Roger and Jane Hardwicke – the craft apparently hit something
on the lake bottom, (NOTE this was not comfirmed) said Grand Traverse
County Sheriff Jack Canfield.
“There was a rush of air and then a big bubble came up,” said Canfield.
“Greg hit the surface.”
Hansen, 27, severely cut (NOTE from the jagged edge of the imploded
window) on the head, face and body,  was rushed by helicopter to Munson
Medical Center in Traverse City and then to Bronson Methodist Hospital
in Kalamazoo, where he was put into a decompression chamber used to
treat victims of the effects of rapid changes in air or water pressure.
The body of Hardwicke, 29, who lived in Grosse Pointe Park, was
recovered by divers about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday after searchers located
the submarine using an underwater video camera towed by a surface
craft.  Divers hoped to raise the submarine today.
Canfield said the Seaker’s Plexiglas nose cone was broken and the
submarine could have flooded.  He said the sub may have hit a sunken log
in the mud; (NOTE this was not comfirmed) an area resident said the lake
bottom was littered with logs from 19th-Century timbering.
Hansen once called Seaker 100 “a high-dollar toy,” and admitted that at
$100,000 it wasn’t affordable for everyone.  Promotional literature for
Hardwicke and Hansen’s company, called H2O Submersibles, said it could
be used for recreation, tourism, research, salvage, search and rescue
and inspection maintenance.
A neighbor of the Hardwickes said that the pair had orders for two or
three craft after they displayed the prototype at the Detroit Boat Show
in January.
James Major, an Onekama charterboat captain, remembers chatting with
Hansen at the show.  “He was quite excited about it and thought that
everybody in the world ought to have one.”
The company’s headquarters is in a small brick and cinder block
commercial building on Stephens Road in Warren.  The office was dark and
empty Wednesday and a black and white baseball jacket hung just inside
the door.
Chris Malone, manager of the Barefoot Grass lawn service also located in
the building, said Hansen often worked late on the submarine.  “He had
real high hopes for it.  They had gotten a good response down at the
boat show.”
Malone said the last time he saw Hansen and the sub was Saturday when he
was loading it on a trailer behind a truck.  “It’s a shame.  It looked
like the thing would be a lot of fun.”
In addition to his parents, Hardwicke, is survived by a sister, Mary
Beth, a brother, Scott, a grandmother, Bernice Hardwicke Baad, and a
grandfather, Leslie  Croswell.
His funeral will be at 11a.m. Friday at the Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral
Home in Traverse City, Visitation will be from 7 to 9 tonight at the
funeral home.  The body will be cremated.  The family asks that
memorials be directed either to the Nature Conservancy, 2840 E. Grand
River, east Lansing, 48823 or to the Michigan Loon Preservation
Association, c/o Michigan Audubon Society, 409 E. Avenue Kalamazoo,
49007.

Submitted by Jon Shawl to the Psub group.