Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] NEWS ARTICLE: For sub hobbyists, smugglers' craft is subpar

["Rick and Marcia" <empiricus@telus.net>]

Guilty as accused.  I came across my first Cousteau story in my gr. 6 reader
about the grouper that wouldn't leave a shark cage.

In 1969 I came across a magazine actually dedicated to breathing
underwater!!!  Skin Diver Magazine, of course.  :-)

The rest is history.  Alec, good one  :-D

Rick L


----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Perkel" <joeperkel@hotmail.com>
To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 4:51 PM
Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] NEWS ARTICLE: For sub hobbyists, smugglers'
craft is subpar


>
>         "We all watched way too many Cousteau movies as kids."
>
> ....Yes Sir Alec, you've got that right!!..... A real Cousteau buff will
> remember this episode....
>
>    "Octopus..Octopus..poor little Octopus.......why do you look so sad?"
>
>
> Well done to those quoted!!! The press did a good job with this one!
>
> Joe
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >From: "Jay K. Jeffries" <bottomgun@mindspring.com>
> >Reply-To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
> >To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
> >Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] NEWS ARTICLE: For sub hobbyists, smugglers'
craft
> >is subpar
> >Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 19:01:47 -0500
> >
> >Found this in a link to the Pittsburgh Gazette.
> >
> >
> >
> >Respectfully,
> >
> >Jay K. Jeffries
> >
> >Andros Is., Bahamas
> >
> >
> >
> >It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought
> >without
> >accepting it.
> >   -  <http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1152.html> Aristotle
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >  For sub hobbyists, smugglers' craft is subpar
> >
> >
> >Thursday, November 30, 2006
> >
> >By Jennifer Saranow, The Wall Street Journal
> >
> >
> >
> >This month, the Coast Guard detained four men who were allegedly trying
to
> >smuggle 3.5 tons of cocaine meant for the U.S. News accounts of the Nov.
16
> >bust, about 90 miles southwest of Costa Rica, described their unusual
> >vessel
> >as a 50-foot homemade fiberglass submarine.
> >
> >That caught the attention of a busy netherworld of hobbyists who build
> >submarines in their garages.
> >
> >"The captured drug-sub appears to be amateurish in construction and not
> >nearly as seaworthy as the subs we have seen, designed and built," said
Jon
> >Wallace, a software engineer for Hewlett-Packard in Weare, N.H. In 1996
he
> >cofounded the Personal Submersibles Organization, which now counts about
> >13,000 visitors per month to its Web site, psubs.org.
> >
> >"Semi-submersible at best," sniffed another critic in a posting on the
> >group's site.
> >
> >After reading reports and seeing photographs of the captured vessel,
> >hobbyists concluded that the gray drug craft was crudely constructed and
> >not
> >a serious attempt at building a submarine. Some said it was more a boat
> >meant to blend into the water, skim just below the surface, travel long
> >distances and avoid radar detection. A giveaway was that it was made of
> >fiberglass -- which is generally not a good material for building a
> >submersible vessel, they say. It also had a squarish design rather than
the
> >cylindrical shape required to withstand pressure and stress.
> >
> >Law-enforcement agencies from Colombia to California are increasingly
> >worried about drug-stuffed submarines slinking along beneath the seas.
"We
> >are out there actively searching for these," says Capt. Thomas Cullen,
> >chief
> >of response for the U.S. Coast Guard 11th District based in Alameda,
> >Calif.,
> >which oversaw the boarding and seizing of the vessel off Costa Rica. It
was
> >the first manned sub-like vehicle seized by the U.S., according to Capt.
> >Cullen. Authorities in Colombia have seized a couple of homemade subs in
> >the
> >past two years.
> >
> >Costa Rican authorities say that the vessel seized this month was
> >gasoline-powered, and that it traveled just below the surface with the
crew
> >using snorkel-type tubes to breathe. "Certainly these guys are not PSUBS
> >regulars. Gasoline engines in a submersible are no-nos," wrote Ray
Keefer,
> >45 years old, a computer test engineer in Gaston, Ore., and co-founder of
> >the group. Gasoline engines would be dangerous in a submarine. The Coast
> >Guard says its reports indicate the seized craft had a diesel engine.
> >
> >Mr. Keefer and others believe the captured vessel should more accurately
be
> >called a "David boat," a type of torpedo boat used during the Civil War
> >that
> >operated mostly underwater with only its smokestack and a few inches of
> >hull
> >visible above the surface. "Mostly underwater but not a submersible," he
> >wrote.
> >
> >James Huffman, 28, a warehouse laborer in Tacoma, Wash., and submarine
> >history buff who first got interested in submarines while playing the "Up
> >Periscope!" computer game in eighth grade, says the craft reminded him of
> >the gasoline- and battery-powered USS Holland from around 1900, the U.S.
> >Navy's first commissioned submarine.
> >
> >Man's fascination with exploring the underwater world dates back at least
> >to
> >Alexander the Great, who according to legend descended beneath the waves
in
> >some kind of glass globe. Experimentation with underwater craft continued
> >in
> >the 1500s through the 1700s.
> >
> >In more recent history, sub-like craft were first used militarily in the
> >U.S. during the Revolutionary War. Modern diesel and battery-powered
> >designs
> >appeared during the two World Wars, and in 1954, the era of true
submarines
> >that can stay submerged for long periods emerged with the nuclear-powered
> >USS Nautilus.
> >
> >Hobbyists have been building homemade subs for years with the help of
plans
> >in magazines like Popular Mechanics and designs from men like former
naval
> >submarine captain George Kittredge, whom some hobbyists consider the
> >founder
> >of the homemade-sub craft. The advent of the Internet brought sub fans
> >together and let them share designs and tips.
> >
> >Enthusiasts liken their submarine-building work, which can cost $15,000
or
> >more and take many years, to building an airplane or a boat from scratch.
> >While it is possible to buy design plans, no catalogs exist for parts.
> >Builders have to cook them up at home. For prices ranging from about
> >$70,000
> >to $1 million or more, companies like U.S. Submarines Inc. and
> >Netherlands-based U-Boat Worx offer ready-made submarines that are
popular
> >with yacht owners looking for another toy.
> >
> >Some sub enthusiasts question why smugglers would use a submarine in the
> >first place since subs are slow and must surface. "I could see somebody
> >towing a submersible below a cargo ship," wrote one on the psubs.org Web
> >site and electronic mailing list. George Slaterpryce, 28, a software
> >engineer in Ocala, Fla., suggested that "a true smuggling submarine"
would
> >"have to be something that cruises at 60 feet or so (just deep enough not
> >to
> >be easily noticed)," be constructed of lightweight materials and powered
by
> >a relatively silent motor and have enough air for days of submersion.
> >
> >Members of the Personal Submersibles Organization recognize that the
> >submersibles they build are not technically submarines, according to some
> >definitions. Most homemade-sub hobbyists build one- and two-passenger
steel
> >subs that resemble 10-foot- to 15-foot-long propane tanks in shape with
> >view
> >ports. These subs are called 1ATMs, or 1 atmosphere subs, because they,
> >like
> >military subs, maintain basically the same air pressure inside as at sea
> >level. Depending on the design, 1ATMs can descend 350 feet or more,
travel
> >at speeds up to about five miles an hour and stay underwater for at least
> >an
> >hour.
> >
> >Alec Smyth, 42, of Alexandria, Va., a director of client services at
> >software company Compuware Corp., has two subs of his own, one that
> >descends
> >to 250 feet and the other, still in construction, to 700 feet. He says
sub
> >hobbyists have one thing in common: "We all watched way too many Cousteau
> >movies as kids."
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
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