[PSUBS-MAILIST] publicity

Sat Jun 20 14:47:17 EDT 2020

Vance, your memory is excellent.  I opened up the documentation last 
night and started going through it again.  I need to put a timeline 
together since many of the documents are scattered chronologically, but 
as I said earlier, it's pretty obvious that it wasn't a good business 
relationship and in the end everything just fell apart.  I've got some 
interesting pictures of some early subs/experiments, also original 
negatives and even a few original Ektachrome slides (remember those??) 
of the K600 being hoisted by a crane.  I'm tempted to create a K600 
archive to memorialize the project on the website but I'm not sure 
anyone else is really interested in the history. I wonder how your 
memory corresponds to what I am seeing in the documents and if there are 
any details you might be able to fill in.

An outline:
2/19/76 - George Kittredge and SUB SERVICE of Alesund Norway represented 
by Robert Hartnett, and Leiv Busaet, enter into a contract for 
"...development of a small submarine having a maximum operating depth of 
six hundred (600) feet, to be designed for use in the oil industry or 
such other uses as may be profitable to SUB SERVICE and adaptable by 
KITTREDGE.  This submarine is known as the K-600 series submarine and 
shall include the current prototype K-600 and such modifications as are 
approved by KITTREDGE".

Interestingly, SUB SERVICE was not an incorporated business at this time 
with Hartnett and Busaet signing the contract in their individual 
capacities.  The contract was to be adopted by SUB SERVICE after 
incorporation.  Initial payment was $30,000 (equivalent to $130,000 
today) and he did not receive the balance until December 1980.  
Kittredge wanted certification by ABS, SUB SERVICE insisted on Det 
Norske Veritas (now DNV-GL).  However Veritas appears to have been 
difficult to work with given some letters I have between Kittredge and 
Hartnett.  According to those letters Veritas was slow to respond to 
approval of plans and neither party had confidence that Veritas had 
enough experience with submarines to properly certify the vessel.  At 
one point Kittredge traveled to Oslo Norway and met directly with 
Veritas engineers and there is talk from Hartnett about Kittredge having 
to educate them in how to certify a submarine.  This must be why they 
ended up with Lloyds although I haven't seen any documents specifically 
addressing the change to Lloyds.

3/1/79 - Kittredge had a contract written to license manufacturing of 
the K-600 to SUB SERVICE anywhere in the world except USA.  It looks to 
me like this was initiated by SUB SERVICE, whom were seeking to partner 
with Offshore Inspection Ltd of Glasgow, Scotland, to manufacture, 
market, sell, and maintain K-600 submarines within UK and Ireland.  
According to the contract, SUB SERVICE would produce ten K-600 vessels 
per year, for three years.  Kittredge would receive 20% of the 
construction costs for each submarine as well as an hourly wage for 
writing and producing operation and maintenance manuals.  SUB SERVICE 
was seeking a 50% profit margin on each submarine.  Stipulations, and if 
you knew George you likely aren't surprised by this, were that each 
manufacturing license required approval by Kittredege "...in writing on 
a submarine by submarine basis" and "...no modification whatsoever of 
the submarine known as the K-600 series without the consent in writing 
of KITTREDGE". Even though this is a contract created by Kittredge in 
response to a business proposal by SUB SERVICE, I do not have a signed 
copy of the contract.  And since no additional K-600's were ever 
produced I think we can conclude that he either never signed the 
contract or never gave approval for a license.  I suspect the former 
simply because by this time the submarine was physically complete but he 
still had not received the balance payment for the vessel.  My guess is 
he wasn't going to sign anything until he got final payment for the 
existing K-600 but had the contract drawn up as a carrot.

6/21/79 - The K-600 is approved for certification by Lloyds.

12/1/79 - SUB SERVICE tells Kittredge they have a buyer from England for 
the K-600 and two people want to travel to Maine to see the sub in 
operation.  The buyers arrive 12/10/79 and on 12/11/79 Kittredge 
launches the K-600 in Penobscot Bay and demos the submarine.  The men 
tell Kittredge they will be purchasing it from SUB SERVICE for $125,000 
and leave confident that the transaction will proceed.  Obviously it 
doesn't, however there's no documentation on who these folks represented 
or why the sale ultimately failed.

12/11/80 - After Many letters of promised dates for the payment balance 
and many letters to lawyers on both sides, SUB SERVICE takes delivery 
from Kittredge about 18 months after it was ready. At the same time, SUB 
SERVICE along with Kittredge met with Bath Iron Works in Maine and 
reached an agreement whereby BIW would manufacture 10 submarine basic 
hulls which Kittredge would finish and then ship to Europe.  It appears 
this never developed into a contract or production.

About a week later Kittredge wrote SUB SERVICE asking what their 
intention was for the other ten submarines they agreed to purchase in 
their original 1976 contract.  Kittredge added that he was willing to 
release them from the agreement if they would mutually release him from 
the agreement.  I have the release document that Kittredge had drawn up, 
not have a signed copy of it.  In 1982-83 SUB SERVICE had internal 
strife and Hartnett informs Kittredge he is taking legal action against 
some of the other owners over misplaced funds.  It's at this point I 
assume the company eventually failed.  Whether because of the release 
agreement or the failure of the company, no other K-600's were built.

As late as 1983, Hartnett was still writing Kittredge about potential 
K-900 and K-1000, seemingly ready to strike out on his own.  Kittredge 
responded at one point that he was 65 and retired.

Jon

On 6/18/2020 10:38 AM, via Personal_Submersibles wrote:
> Very cool. And I'm pretty sure George thought the Norwegian owners 
> were dreaming. Their idea was to put a sub on every rig complex in the 
> North Sea, and operate them with only small boats for comms and 
> support. They could have asked me. I'd have told them a little about 
> winter gales and 5-8 meter seas. Aside from a bad idea at the start, 
> what really happened was that ROV technology caught up. The oil 
> companies and engineers liked people in subs, but the lawyers and 
> insurance companies did not. George had a heck of a time reacquiring 
> the 600. It got hung up in legalese in Norway and was going to be 
> junked, or just stuck in a corner somewhere and forgotten. It was and 
> is (arguably) the nicest sub George ever built, so I was happy to see 
> it saved, and very pleased indeed when you snagged it.
> Vance
>

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