Stephen McGinty - The Dive - The Untold Story of the Worlds Deepest Submarine Rescue

There is not a dull page in this stunningly good read.Alexander McCall Smith

The Dive

The Untold Story of the Worlds Deepest Submarine Rescue

Stephen McGinty

In memory of Roger Chapman

To LA, from the depths of my heart

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.

PSALM 130, SONG OF ASCENTS

BRITISH TEAM VICKERS OCEANICS

1. Roger Mallinson, Pisces III pilot
2. Roger Chapman, Pisces III co-pilot
3. Sir Leonard Redshaw, chairman of Vickers Shipbuilding
4. Greg Mott, managing director of Vickers Oceanics
5. Commander Peter Messervy, general manager of Vickers Oceanics
6. Bob Eastaugh, operations manager
7. Len Edwards, master of the Vickers Voyager
8. Ralph Henderson, surface officer
9. David Mayo, diver and communications
10. Desmond Des DArcy, chief submarine pilot
11. Geoff Hall, electrical engineer
12. Doug Huntington, project engineer
13. Ted Carter, assistant technical manager, mechanical
14. Maurice Byham, sales engineer
15. Bob Hanley, surface officer and diver
16. Harold Pass, technical manager
17. Dick Nesbit, electronics engineer
18. Terry Storey, assistant technical manager
19. Roy Browne, pilot
20. Mike Bond, diver

CANADIAN TEAM HYCO

1. Dick Oldaker, president
2. Jim McFarlane, operations manager
3. Al Trice, co-founder
4. Mike Macdonald, senior pilot
5. Jim McBeth, Pisces project engineer
6. Bob Starr, pilot
7. Bob Holland, pilot
8. Al Witcombe, pilot
9. Steve Johnson, pilot

US TEAM

1. Commander Ramos, US Navy liaison officer
2. Commander Earl Lawrence, US Navy salvage master
3. Commander Bob Moss, US Navy deputy supervisor of salvage
4. Bob Watts, CURV-III programme manager
5. Larry Brady, principal pilot
6. Tom Wojewski, sonar technician
7. Denny Holstein, deck supervisor
8. John De Friest, mechanical technician
9. William Sanderson, electronics technician
10. William Patterson, photo technician

SURFACE SHIPS

1. Vickers Voyager
2. HMS Hecate
3. HMS Sir Tristram
4. John Cabot, Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker and cable-laying vessel
5. USS Aeolus, US Navy cable-laying vessel

SUBMERSIBLES

1. Pisces II
2. Pisces III
3. Pisces V
4. CURV-III (cable-controlled undersea recovery vehicle)

In the cabin the gentle rock and roll of the ship is as good as a lullaby to Roger Chapman. A lifetime at sea has taught him to sleep whenever possible and grab what you can. He might only have turned in a couple of hours earlier, but this is all the rest he needs, and when the alarm goes off at 1 am he rises, washes himself in the basin and dresses in a pair of blue jeans and a grey shirt, then pulls on a pair of old blue overalls. He thinks for a second about picking up a heavier jumper, but hes only going to be gone a few hours so he doesnt see the point. Before going out of the cabin, he leaves the pilots log open, ready for his return. A couple of minutes later he steps out of the cabin, swings by the canteen where the chef has already prepared their packed lunches and heads up on deck. He likes the quiet of the early hours. Although the Vickers Voyager, the companys 2,850-ton command vessel red with a white trim, and capable of carrying and servicing two submersibles is operating around the clock, at night there are fewer people and a sense of stealthy calm settles over the ship.

On deck he feels the mild chill of the evening breeze, then looks down at the dark waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The nearest land is over 150 miles distant. The immense blackness under the horizon is illuminated only slightly by the moon, trapped behind a curtain of grey clouds. Its time to go to work. He walks to the internal hold, where the white shape of Pisces III, their mini-submersible, is sitting, and where his colleague Roger Mallinson has clearly spent the last few hours. A skilled engineer, who in his free time likes nothing more than building miniature steam engines, Mallinson has been frustrated at the poor performance of the submarines manipulator arm, the five-foot-long extendable metal talon, so he has decided to strip it down and rebuild it.

Mallinson, a tall, thin man with a bushy brown beard and piercing blue eyes, is not having a good day, or evening. Hes feeling rough. He has not slept for 24 hours and has barely eaten. The memory of a cold meat and potato pie hed been served from a peeling Formica counter at a down-at-heel pub near the airport, his last real meal, refuses to fade. He might be coming down with food poisoning and has been complaining about having a touch of the runs, which he hopes is passing.

When the manipulator arm is acting up, the issue is either mechanical or hydraulic, but on this occasion its both. Then theres the matter of the oxygen supply. The sub has around half a bottle, more than sufficient to do a 10- to 12-hour job, but Mallinson stops to think for a second and decides to replace it with a full tank. He gets up, climbs out of the sub with the oxygen tank and heads off to the oxygen store, three decks down. Luckily its open, and although he knows he should get permission from Ralph Henderson, the field officer, he doesnt want to approach him, not after the way Henderson spoke to him earlier in the week. (Mallinson had some concerns about the aft sphere hatch and asked for repairs prior to his last break. When he got back on board he asked Henderson if theyd been carried out, and his boss was less than polite in his reply. They hadnt, Mallinson was told, and if he had a problem with that, he didnt need to dive.) Mallinson pulls out a full tank replacing it with the half-full tank from the sub, even though he shouldnt hoists it over his shoulder and clambers back up the stairs.

Pisces V being loaded onto Vickers Voyager at Cork Harbour.

Chapman finds Mallinson where hed left him: behind the controls and grappling with the final repairs to the manipulator arm. Mallinson insists he has snatched a few minutes sleep but Chapman is doubtful, and now theres no time left for even a quick nap. They have a schedule to maintain and its almost 1.30 am. Chapman climbs down into the sphere, carrying the sandwiches, a flask of coffee, a small carton of milk and a Tupperware box of sugar.

Pisces III is connected to winches and wire restraints in Voyagers ceiling that enable her 12-ton weight to be moved easily towards the stern, where steel strops abruptly halt the craft. The front of Pisces III is now directly over the sea, with the portholes offering a view of the dark wash of waves below.

Chapman and Mallinson, sitting in the subs tight operational sphere, just six feet across, begin to work through the pre-dive checklist for what on their paperwork is designated as Dive No. 325.

1. All equipment secured: check
2. Ports cleaned: check