Re: Subs in the NW

[Phil Nuytten <72020.572@compuserve.com>]

Hi, Rick:
        Ahuh! . . . a Pierce sub! Yeah, I remember them. They had some
pretty wild 'artist's concepts' - which seemed, at the time, to indicate
that they hadn't done much in the way of mangling iron. Guy I knew in
Thunder Bay, Ontario - name of Fred Broennelle - bought one of their very
first . .and named  it 'Ugly Tugly' This was in the very early seventies, I
think  -  He brought it to OTC ( Offshore Technology Conference) in
Houston. . .I was giving a paper on submersible escape /rescue/self -
rescue ( our experiences with commercial subs) and he dragged this thing to
Texas behind his stationwagon - (on a trailer, of course, although it would
have made little difference to the appearnce of the sub if he had dispensed
with the trailer!! ) and asked me to have a look at it. I went out to the
parking lot at the Agrodome - hotter than the hubs of hell - and spent some
time looking at Ugly Tugly . Pretty uncomfortable position . .it was one of
the worst pieces of design and craftsmanship I'd ever seen!! The welding,
in particulary, was obviously done by some-one who, simply, didn't know
how. The welds looked like wads of chewing gum! So, what to tell Fred . .I
later got to know him quite well, but this was the first time I'd met him
and I didn't know exactly how to let him know he'd been totally hosed!
        He solved that by saying " Ugly sonofabitch, aint it? - worst
weldin' I ever saw!" he had driven it south in the hopes that he could find
some-one to sell it to . .but had zero luck on that score. He bought it
'cause it was really, really, cheap  - compared to the Perry boats of the
day, or Pisces, etc. He went on to spend over a million dollars (a few
years later) on a surface -powered manipulator/ lock-out sub called
'Constructor' ( I bought it for a specific project some years after that .
. small world, this sub biz!). 
        Not meaning to be negative, but that's the only Pierce that I've
seen in the flesh . .I presume they must have got a hell of a lot better in
later models, or there wouldn't have been any (G) Do you know anything
about the history of Pierce, how many they built, etc.?? Somewhere,
niggling in my mind I seem to think some-one told me that they had built a
couple of small observation subs and one lock-out - but that may have been
at the time - and they built more, later.
        Great grist for a museum, tho'

Regards,
Phil Nuytten