Medicine: Up from the Bottom

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Between hurricane warnings the morning was glassy calm and only faintly overcast as the submarine U.S.S. Archerfish hove to, 15 miles southwest of Key West, over Vestal Shoal. Flooding her tanks, Archerfish submerged and settled gently on the coral-sand bottom at 322 ft. On the surface, the submarine rescue ship Penguin maneuvered from a special mooring until she was directly over the sub, double-checking her position by UQC (underwater sound communication). Then Penguin lowered a diving bell. Of the four men who rode it down to 300 ft., only one was inside; three were skindivers with backpacks of Scuba gear, and they hitched a ride on the bell, for speed and safety, by clinging to its exterior.

In the forward torpedo room of Archerfish were Commander (Medical Corps) George Bond, 43, and Chief Engineman Cyril Tuckfield, 38. Dr. Bond wore nothing but swimming trunks, face mask, a Mae West life vest and a pressure gauge on his wrist. Tuckfield carried a small additional item: a nose clip of rubber-padded steel. They clambered into Archerfish's tiny forward escape hatch and dogged down the door, cutting themselves off from the rest of the submarine. Over UQC came the word: all set. Penguin's skipper, Lieut. Commander George Enright, began a six-minute countdown.

25 Seconds. First, Bond and Tuckfield checked the lights, emergency gear—and each other. Then Tuckfield opened a seacock, and the forward escape hatch began to fill with water. The men stayed at normal atmospheric pressure because excess air and their stale breath escaped through a vent line into the torpedo room. As the 68° water rose to their chins, Bond and Tuckfield shivered. With half a minute to go, the doctor gave the order and the chief opened a valve, letting air under 225 Ibs. pressure gush into the hatch. The outlet vent was closed. The air pressure zoomed, and at the equivalent of 240 ft. the gauge on Dr. Bond's wrist imploded. Dr. Bond had to hold his nose with his fingers while he did heroic Valsalva* maneuvers to equalize the pressure in his head; Tuckfield had the advantage of his nose clip.

Dr. Bond stood with his foot poised against the outboard escape door, which would open when pressure inside and out was equalized. After 25 seconds, he felt it give, and yelled: "On the bottom!" Tuckfield closed the air inlet. They were now up to their necks in water, and breathing air at a pressure of about ten atmospheres, 134 p.s.i. above normal. Instead of being searing hot, as they had feared, it proved comfortably warming. But there was no time to enjoy it. Not a second could be lost, or they would begin to suffer nitrogen poisoning—Jacques Yves Cousteau's "rapture of the deep"—which makes men behave irrationally and often suicidally.