Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:56:28.344Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

100 Years of Underwater Escape

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

Get access

Extract

In 1850 the hand-propelled submarine boat Sea Diver, built by Wilhelm Bauer, dived out of control to the bottom when setting out to attack the Danish Fleet off Kiel. Shelford (1960) has described how Bauer and his crewmen Thomsen and Witt first tried to raise the boat using compressed air to blow the water out of the ballast tanks and, when the air was exhausted, they decided to try to escape by flooding the boat in the hope of equalising the pressure on the inside and the outside of the hatch. Eventually the hatch gave way and the first three underwater escapers arrived in a rush of air at the surface, to the surprise of those who had been grappling for the sunken boat.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References To Literature

ADMIRALTY DEEP DIVING COMMITTEE, 1933. Report of a committee appointed by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to consider and report upon the Equipment and material required for the provision of Deep Diving and Ordinary Diving in H.M. Service. R.N. Diving Report.Google Scholar
Barnard, E. E. P and Eaton, W. J., 1965. Experiments in submarine escape. UPS 241.Google Scholar
Barnard, E. E. P., Eaton, W. J. and Snow, R. E., 1971. Experiments in submarine escape. Rapid compression of men to 625 feet (191 metres). RNPL 10/71Google Scholar
Behnke, A. R., Thomson, R. M. and Motley, E. P., 1935. Psychologic effects from breathing air at four atmospheres pressure. Am. J. Physiol., 112, 554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bert, P., 1878. La Pression Barometrique, 1168 pp. Paris: Masson.Google Scholar
Bond, G. F., Workman, R. D and Mazzone, W. F., 1960. Deep submarine escape. U.S. Nov. Med. Lab. Res. Rep., 346.Google Scholar
Case, E. M. and Haldane, J. B. S., 1941. Human physiology under high pressure. J Hyg., Camb., 41, 225.Google Scholar
Davis, Sir Robert H., 1962. Deep Diving and Submarine Operations (71st Edn), 693 pp. London: St Catherine's Press.Google Scholar
Donald, K. W., 1947. Oxygen poisoning in man. Brit. Med. J., 1, 667717.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Donald, K. W., 1970. A review of Submarine Escape Trials from 1945 to 1970 with particular emphasis on Decompression Sickness. UPS 290.Google Scholar
Donald, K. W., Davidson, W. M. and Shelford, W. O., 1948. Submarine escape breathing air. J.Hyg., Camb., 46, 176183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eaton, W. J., 1967a. Experiments in submarine escape.Google Scholar
1. Goat experiments with fast decompression from pressures equivalent to depth of from 300 to 500 ft of seawater.Google Scholar
2. Extension of the maximum safe depth of escape for goats by increased rates of ascent. UPS 264.Google Scholar
Eaton, W. J., 1967b. Experiments in submarine escape: exposure of goats to air at high pressures equivalent to 550–800 ft of sea water. UPS 268.Google Scholar
Eaton, W. J., 1971. Depth limitations of the buoyant (hooded) ascent submarine escape procedure. RNPL 9/71.Google Scholar
Eaton, W. J., 1972. Personal communication.Google Scholar
Elliott, D. H., 1966. Submarine escape: the hood inflation system. J. Roy. Nov. Med. Serv., 52, 120130.Google Scholar
Haldane, J. S., 1907. Report of a committee appointed by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to consider and report upon the conditions of Deep-water Diving, 80 pp. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Lipscombe, F. W., 1954. The British Submarine, 269 pp. London: Black.Google Scholar
Maas, P., 1961. The Rescuer, 256 pp. London: Collins.Google Scholar
Rainsford, S. G., 1956. Some afterthoughts on a submarine disaster. UPS 157.Google Scholar
Shelford, W. D., 1960. Subsunk,248/ pp. London: Harrap.Google Scholar
Taylor, H. J., 1953. Recent research in submarine escape. UPS 137.Google Scholar