''Nautile'' is a crewed

submersible A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of i ...

owned by

Ifremer IFREMER (Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer; ) is an oceanographic institution in Brest, France. Scope of works Ifremer focuses its research activities in the following areas: * Monitoring, use and enhancement of co ...

, the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea. Commissioned in 1984, the submersible can be operated at depths of up to . ''Nautile'' is capable of housing three people. It has a length of 8 m, still imaging

camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with ...

s, two colour video cameras, and a number of flood lights. It is fitted with two robotic arms to allow remote manipulation. ''Nautile'' can stay under water for up to eight hours at a time. Two ships can act as mothership to ''Nautile'': ''Pourquoi Pas?'' and ''Atalante''. In its early days ''Nautile'' was launched from RV ''Nadir''. The vessel has been used to examine the wreck of the RMS ''Titanic'' and to search for the black boxes from Air France Flight 447Air France Black Box Seeking Sub Is Titanic Veteran
/ref>

References

External links

*
Nautile
— specification from

website
Nautile: miniature submarine
— BBC news article
Submarine to examine sunken oil tanker
—

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publish ...

article
Le Nautile
— technical information from

website Deep-submergence vehicles Bathyscaphes Research submarines of France 1984 ships {{submarine-stub

See also

References

External links