Ben Franklin (PX-15)
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The Ben Franklin (name: PX-15 ) is a research mesoscaph built in 1967 by Jacques Piccard and the Grumman Aerospace Corporation . Piccard wanted to use this vehicle to explore the Gulf Stream and drift through it.
Piccard, who had set a depth record of 10,912 m until 2019 with the Bathyscaphen Trieste , was planning a vehicle suitable for longer research trips at medium depths from 1965 and therefore met with Marc Bailley-Cowell from the Grumman Aerospace Corporation to work out the plans . Construction began in 1967 like Piccard's previous boat, the Auguste Piccard in Monthey , Switzerland ; At the same time, Grumman carried out long-term tests in which two people stayed in a pressure chamber for 100 hours. In April 1968, the vehicle for final completion by was Palm Beach ( Florida ) shipped, where the boat was on 26 July 1968 by the stack. On August 21 of that year it was baptized in the name of Benjamin Franklin , the namesake of the Gulf Stream. This was followed by a longer test phase, which ended in the early summer of 1969.
On July 14, 1969, Ben Franklin's scientific mission began off West Palm Beach , Florida . The aim of the mission was to research the deep currents of the Gulf Stream off the east coast of the USA and the several weeks of coexistence and work of the team in a confined space. With regard to the latter point, Piccard also cooperated with NASA , which hoped to gain important knowledge for the construction of space stations and carried out medical examinations. At the same time, the oceanographically relevant data of the environment was measured and saved for later evaluation. Two ships, the mothership Privateer and the research vessel Kellar , accompanied the PX-15 on its voyage.
Participants in the dive trip were:
- Jacques Piccard as project manager
- Donald J. Kazimir of Grumman Corporation as helmsman
- Erwin Aebersold, Piccard's employee, as the second helmsman
- Roswell F. Busby, of the US Naval Oceanographic Office , for oceanographic experiments and considerations on further uses for this type of submarine
- Kenneth Haigh, of the US Naval Oceanographic Office, for scientific experiments
- Chester B. May, from NASA, to evaluate the living conditions on board.
The mission ended 30 days and eleven hours later on August 14, 1969, when the Ben Franklin about 500 km south of Halifax ( Nova Scotia showed up). At this point in time the boat had covered about 2,400 km with the current. The diving depth varied between 200 and 600 m. According to their own statements, the crew got along well with the conditions, all experiments and tasks could be carried out on time, the only need for improvement was communication with the outside world.
After this successful mission, the Franklin was first used for further scientific diving trips, whereby u. a. Robert D. Ballard was on board. On April 12, 1970, the boat was badly damaged on a coral reef in the Bahamas . In 1971 the company Horton Trading Ltd. bought the boat and planned to repair and expand it in British Columbia . However, this plan was not carried out, the boat was instead laid up in a shipyard in Vancouver . In 1999, Horton Trading Ltd. donated the boat to the Vancouver Maritime Museum , where it was restored. The boat has been a museum ship since 2002 .
The boat displaces 130 t and is approx. 16 m long. The maximum diving depth is stated to be 2,000 feet (approx. 650 m), the destruction depth is 4,000 feet (approx. 1,300 m). The maximum speed that can be achieved on its own with electric motor gondolas that can be swiveled by 130 ° is 4 kn . The crew consisted of 6 men and supplies were carried for six weeks.
literature
- Norbert Gierschner: diving boats . Interpress / VEB publishing house for transport, Berlin 1980
- Jacques Piccard: Diving trip in the Gulf Stream - creation and testing of the mesoscaph. Brockhaus, Wiesbaden 1972, ISBN 3-7653-0247-3 .
Web links
- Overview of the drift drive of Franklin (Engl.)
- Comprehensive collection of links
- Website of the Vancouver Maritime Museum , with a virtual tour of the Franklin (Engl.)
- scinexx.de: The forgotten mission PX-15: A submarine expedition in the shadow of the moon landing
Individual evidence
- ↑ Deep sea researcher beats diving record and finds plastic bag. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. May 13, 2019, accessed August 14, 2019 .
Coordinates: 49 ° 16 ′ 39.9 ″ N , 123 ° 8 ′ 51.8 ″ W.