 Johnson Sea Link submersible, ca. 2005 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Namesake | John Seward Johnson I,Edwin Albert Link |
| Builder | (JSL I) Edwin Albert Link /Alcoa; (JSL II)Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution |
| Launched | (JSL I) 1971; (JSL II) 1975 |
| General characteristics (JSL I, 1974) | |
| Length | 23 feet (7.0 m) |
| Beam | 7.9 feet (2.4 m) |
| Draft | 7.1 feet (2.2 m) |
| Propulsion | 8 28-VDC electric motors |
| Speed | 1.75 knots (3.24 km/h; 2.01 mph) |
| Test depth | 3,000 feet (910 m) |
| Complement | 1 pilot, 3 observers[1] |
Johnson Sea Link was a type of deep-sea scientific researchsubmersible built byEdwin Albert Link. Link built the first submersible,Johnson Sea Link I, in 1971 at the request of his friendSeward Johnson, founder of theHarbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. It was the successor to Link's previous submersible,Deep Diver, which had been determined to be unsafe for use at great depths or in extremely cold temperatures.[2][3]Johnson Sea Link II was built in 1975.[3]
TheJohnson Sea Link submersibles carried a crew of four in two separate compartments.[4] The aft compartment was originally designed for lockout diving, allowing two divers to be compressed to the ambient pressure of the ocean and leave the submersible to work underwater. The forward pilot's compartment was an acrylic sphere with a diameter of 5 feet (1.5 m), providing a panoramic underwater view for the pilot and an observer.[2][3]
In 1973, during a seemingly routine dive offKey West, theJohnson Sea Link was trapped for over 24 hours in the wreckage of the destroyerUSS Fred T. Berry, which had been sunk to create anartificial reef. Although the submersible was eventually recovered by the rescue vesselA.B. Wood II, two of the four occupants died ofcarbon dioxide poisoning — 31-year-old Edwin Clayton Link, the son of Edwin Link, and 51-year-old diver Albert Dennison Stover. The submersible's pilot, Archibald "Jock" Menzies, andichthyologist Robert Meek survived.[5][6][7][8][9] Over the next two years, Edwin Link designed an unmanned Cabled Observation and Rescue Device (CORD) that could free a trapped submersible.[9]
In 1975, a secondJohnson Sea Link was constructed by the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution.[3] In 1977, the JSLs were used to examine the wreckage of theironcladCivil Warbattleship,USS Monitor.[3] They were also used in the effort to recover the wreckage of theSpace ShuttleChallenger after itsdestruction in 1986. One of the submersibles discovered thesolid rocket booster with the faulty seal that had caused the shuttle to explode.[3] The submersible and its research program were featured in aVoice of America story in 2005.[10] In 2010, Harbor Branch sold theSeward Johnson, the ship outfitted to deploy the submersibles, and laid off the submersibles' crew and support staff in July 2011, ending their operation.[11]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1973 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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