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Thread: Way down yonder...

  1. #1
    Join Date
    11-22-03
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    Way down yonder...

    My post-retirement interest in WWII Navy vessels has triggered a lot of research on my part...I'm fascinated now by the recent findings of combat ships lost at sea and considered gone forever...In recent years, mainly through the efforts of the late Paul Allen, and his funding of his research ship, the RV Petrel, a lot of hitherto "lost" history can now be documented...The pictures of the USS Lexington (CV-2) at the bottom of the Coral Sea, and the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) particularly amazed me because of the preserved condition of both after so many decades underwater...Neither one will ever rust away to oblivion because at their depths of 2 and 3.4 miles respectively, oxygen doesn't even exist except in microbial amounts...Some of the photos I saw depicted aircraft and equipment lashed to the decks as if they had sunk just yesterday...

    Since my news amalgamator knows what I like to read, this article from a source not on my A-list for reading came up today...It's a very long read about another rich guy (although not in Paul Allen's wealth category) who has a passion for exploring the depths of the oceans...His goal is to collect samples from the lowest point of the deepest trenches in five oceans...And he wants to do it himself in a submersible...The depth at which the Indianapolis rests would be child's play to him as he has already descended to twice that depth alone in a pressure vessel which he pilots down and back to the surface...

    The submersible itself never even finished proper sea trials before he made his first solo descent...What I don't understand is how he ever got back to the surface carrying the weight of the pair of balls he must be packing......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  2. #2
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    cool read
    "The only thing that we learn from torture is the depths of our own moral depravity"

  3. #3
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    That was an enthralling read for me. Great stuff, plus the writer was excellent.

    I’ve always had an interest in deep dives...even paid for a 900’ trip down off Grand Cayman in a sub once used by the oil & gas industry for rig work. The intrepid Mr. Vescovo obvious has a bit more interest to invest years of time, effort and risk, plus ~$48M in this venture. Happy I got to read about it. My trip cost $200, as I remember. That last ~35,000 feet is where the real expense and adventure resides.

    I wish the article had more photos, especially of the critters they found.

    ...The walls of trenches are filled with life, but they were not Vescovo’s mission. “It’s a little bit like going to the Louvre, putting your running shoes on, and sprinting through it,” Lahey said. “What you really want to do is to go there with someone who can tell you what you’re looking at.”...
    It was interesting to find that even at this date no one really had exact information of where the greatest depths of the ocean trenches actually were.
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  4. #4
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    Excellent----thanks for bringing that in Ben. I love stories showing how man can do things if only they don't utter "I can't" :clap"
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Grubb View Post
    I love stories showing how man can do things if only they don't utter "I can't"
    The old saying in these parts is:
    Can't killed the hell out of did...
    ...Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

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