Science: Tragedy Under the Sea

It was scheduled to be a routine mission, a dive of about an hour's duration in only a few hundred feet of water off Key West, Fla. The 23-ft.-long submersible, designed by famed Inventor-Oceanographer Edwin A. Link—whose son, E. Clayton Link, 31, was one of the four men on board—seemed more than equal to the task. Since it began operating as an oceanographic research vessel for the Smithsonian Institution two years ago, Sea-Link* had easily plunged to depths of 1,000 ft. Last week, as the minisub maneuvered in swift currents of the Gulf Stream,...