Entry into Inner Space
r 57
to have a lasting benecial effect on the country’s economy, if not,
according to some authorities, its energy policy. According to
estimates, the country’s balance of payments will benet, from these
indigenous energy stores, by somewhere in the region of £100
million in the mid—197os.
The offshore search for oil and natural gas and the subsequent
exploitation of these important energy sources have provided the
greatest incentive for the extension of commercial, as against
military, diving. The diver has many tasks to perform in order to
support the seaward drive of the drilling rigs: underwater explora—
tion and surveying of sites for drilling operations; measuring the
degree of ‘scour’ round the rigs and placing protective sandbags
around the legs (North Sea divers placed 15,000 sandbags around
the legs of one rig); inspecting the underwater sections of the
rigs for fatigue fractures; and so on. As drilling rigs have moved
to deeper waters, diving techniques have been advanced so that
divers can continue to give service. As a result, the time lag
between experimental descents to depths beyond normal working
dives and the commercial follow—up has been shortened to a few
years, and several diving companies can now place working divers
at any depth within the 600—feet range of the continental shelf
region.
Doubling with the diver on many of these tasks is the manned
submersible which has become a prominent feature of underwater
technology since the early 19605. Not all submersibles have been
constructed solely with a view to exploiting the oceans: they have
been built to exhort the value of structural materials; to carry
‘trippers’; and to promote particular industrial companies.
Nevertheless, submersibles now play a prominent part in both
industrial and oceanographic research. For example, Dr jacques
Piccard, who pioneered the midwater submersible Ben Franklin,
once likened the marine biologisr with his nets and trawls to a blind
man making a buttery collection, but with the advent of the sub—
mersible, marine life can be studied at close quarters. Fisheries’
scientists can track and observe the migrations of economically
important species such as salmon and tuna, or make detailed studies
of oceanographic factors affecting these and other marine animals.
ln fact, some of the earliest applications of research submersibles
(converted military submarines) were in the sheries sphere.
The question of whether man must always descend into the oceans
r 57
to have a lasting benecial effect on the country’s economy, if not,
according to some authorities, its energy policy. According to
estimates, the country’s balance of payments will benet, from these
indigenous energy stores, by somewhere in the region of £100
million in the mid—197os.
The offshore search for oil and natural gas and the subsequent
exploitation of these important energy sources have provided the
greatest incentive for the extension of commercial, as against
military, diving. The diver has many tasks to perform in order to
support the seaward drive of the drilling rigs: underwater explora—
tion and surveying of sites for drilling operations; measuring the
degree of ‘scour’ round the rigs and placing protective sandbags
around the legs (North Sea divers placed 15,000 sandbags around
the legs of one rig); inspecting the underwater sections of the
rigs for fatigue fractures; and so on. As drilling rigs have moved
to deeper waters, diving techniques have been advanced so that
divers can continue to give service. As a result, the time lag
between experimental descents to depths beyond normal working
dives and the commercial follow—up has been shortened to a few
years, and several diving companies can now place working divers
at any depth within the 600—feet range of the continental shelf
region.
Doubling with the diver on many of these tasks is the manned
submersible which has become a prominent feature of underwater
technology since the early 19605. Not all submersibles have been
constructed solely with a view to exploiting the oceans: they have
been built to exhort the value of structural materials; to carry
‘trippers’; and to promote particular industrial companies.
Nevertheless, submersibles now play a prominent part in both
industrial and oceanographic research. For example, Dr jacques
Piccard, who pioneered the midwater submersible Ben Franklin,
once likened the marine biologisr with his nets and trawls to a blind
man making a buttery collection, but with the advent of the sub—
mersible, marine life can be studied at close quarters. Fisheries’
scientists can track and observe the migrations of economically
important species such as salmon and tuna, or make detailed studies
of oceanographic factors affecting these and other marine animals.
ln fact, some of the earliest applications of research submersibles
(converted military submarines) were in the sheries sphere.
The question of whether man must always descend into the oceans