''Johnson Sea Link'' was a type of deep-sea scientific research

submersible A submersible is an underwater vehicle which needs to be transported and supported by a larger ship, watercraft or dock, platform. This distinguishes submersibles from submarines, which are self-supporting and capable of prolonged independent ope ...

built by Edwin Albert Link. Link built the first submersible, ''Johnson Sea Link I'', in 1971 at the request of his friend Seward Johnson, founder of the Harbor 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. ''Johnson Sea Link II'' was built in 1975. The ''Johnson Sea Link'' submersibles carried a crew of four in two separate compartments. 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.

1973 accident

In 1973, during a seemingly routine dive off

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, the ''Johnson Sea Link'' was trapped for over 24 hours in the wreckage of the destroyer , which had been sunk to create an

artificial reef An artificial reef (AR) is a human-created freshwater or marine benthic structure. Typically built in areas with a generally featureless bottom to promote Marine biology#Reefs, marine life, it may be intended to control #Erosion prevention, erosio ...

. Although the submersible was eventually recovered by the rescue vessel '' A.B. Wood II'', two of the four occupants died of carbon 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, and

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Robert Meek survived. Over the next two years, Edwin Link designed an unmanned Cabled Observation and Rescue Device (CORD) that could free a trapped submersible.

Later career

In 1975, a second ''Johnson Sea Link'' was constructed by the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution. In 1977, the JSLs were used to examine the wreckage of the

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, . They were also used in the effort to recover the wreckage of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' after its

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in 1986. One of the submersibles discovered the

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with the faulty seal that had caused the shuttle to explode. The submersible and its research program were featured in a ''

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'' story in 2005. In 2010, Harbor Branch sold the ''Seward Johnson'', the ship outfitted to deploy the submersibles, and laid off the submersibles' crew and support staff in July 2011, ending their operation.

In media

* "Deep Sea Secrets," a 1992 episode of the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

television series '' Return to the Sea'', profiles ''Johnson Sea Link'' and ''Seward Johnson'' during operations off

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References

External links

Description of submersible from NOAAU.S. Coast Guard report on fatal 1973 accident''Return to the Sea'' Episode 202 "Deep Sea Secrets" at OceanArchives
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policy for video a
OceanArchives
{{1973 shipwrecks Maritime incidents in 1973 Research submarines of the United States 1971 ships