Welmans, Busby, and Accident Data

[SeaLordOne@aol.com]

Psubbers,

A quick response to recent postings:

1.  Welmans.  Good references include: Underwater Warriors, Paul Kemp, Naval
Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1996, ISBN 1-55750-857-7, and Submarine
Warfare, Monsters and Midgets, Richard Compton-Hall, 1985, Sterling Publishing
Co.,Inc., 2 Park Aveneue, NY, NY 10016, ISBN 07137-1389-5.  

But please note, Mr. Kemp suggested that... "These craft can be further
divided into the practical and therefore successful (British X-Craft, Italian
Maiale); those that were enthusiastically designed but impractical (British
Chariot, Japanese Ko-Hyoteki, German Biber); and the suicidal, either by
accident or design (British Welman, German Neger and Japanese Kaiten and its
various derivatives)."  Basing your psub design of a "suicidal" craft may not
meet your long-term needs in this area.

2.  Busby Book.  Unlike all other high-end books on submersibles, this one is
published by the U.S. Government, the Oceanographer of the Navy, and is
therefore public domain.  Unless I am misinformed, you can xerox this one at
will without concerns for copyright issues.  I will follow up on this, as I
would love to see every psubber have access to (IMHO) the best submersible
book every published.  I will get back to the group in 30 days.

3.  Accident data.  I work for the Regulation and Certification organization
within the Federal Aviation Administration, and as such am wary of limiting
myself to basing recommended procedures on accident data.  In aviation, only
about 1% of the dangerous things we do actually lead to an accident.  Most of
our screw-up produce "incidents" or only minor problems.  Accidents involving
loss of life are so rare that they are almost statistically insignificant.  It
appears that the same situation exists in submersible operations.  A data-base
of major screw-ups may well save a lot more lives than a data-base limiting
itself to accidents.

Just my opinons, for what they are worth,

Doug Farrow
Oakton VA