A hungry heart to regulate their breathing
August 14, 2011 9:29 AM Subscribe
In July 1969, just two days prior to the launch of Apollo 11, six intrepid aquanauts climbed into
a submarine built in the mountains of Switzerland, slipped beneath the waves near Palm Beach, Florida, and switched off their motors. Thirty-one days later, they surfaced about 300 miles from Halifax, Nova Scotia, having drifted 1444 miles in
the Grumman/Piccard research submersible PX-15 Ben Franklin.
Popular Mechanics provided advance notice, giving the Ben Franklin's upcoming mission
their usual lush illustrations and exuberant technical prose. With the national mania surrounding the first manned moon landing in full flower, the project failed to capture the attention of the public, but NASA's
other cooperative mission of July 1969 left
a legacy of information that proved invaluable in planning Skylab and the International Space Station, as well as proposed longer manned space missions. After running aground in 1971, the Ben Franklin was sold into private hands and
sat rusting and forgotten in a boatyard until 1999, when it was recovered, restored, and put on display at the
Vancouver Maritime Museum, which also provides
a detailed page on the submarine, including
an excellent virtual tour.
The
captain's log is a particularly charming piece of history—embellished with hand-drawn artwork growing more whimsical with each entry, it brings a wry and very human wit to the captain's depth and distance charts.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:38 AM on August 14, 2011 [5 favorites]