The Oceangate story is so much worse than we thought

Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to alfadriver :

People in general and it seems Americans in particular have a long history of fascination and idolization of rich people and how they spend their money.  This extends to how they occasionally die as well.

I mean... we even had a TV show about the former subject that ran for 11 seasons in the 80s/90s. 

When I was in high school, we had an entire class devoted to Media Myth, and how modern celebrities are our version of, say, the ancient Greeks going on about Agamemnon or Persephone.

It was really interesting and helped put a perspective on things.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

The US also lacks a formal royal family class of which to gossip about. 

TIL that the submersible was stored outside and had been struck by lightning at one point.

And they knew about it, and said "*shrug emoji* what bad could happen if you zapped a carbon fiber composite with lightning?"

(given that they thought a material that is weak in compression would be a good idea for a submersible, in the first place, this is not really that surprising)

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

(given that they thought a material that is weak in compression would be a good idea for a submersible, in the first place, this is not really that surprising)

Apparently the carbon-fiber-with-titanium-end-caps design was based on a US Navy submersible called AUSS.  That one was unmanned; but it had a pressure hull for bouyancy, went deeper than the OceanGate one did, and they did over a hundred successful dives in the 90s before retiring it.  So perhaps the core idea isn't a crazy as everyone makes it out to be now?

johndej said:

Bunch of videos going around of the wreckage found on the seafloor. Note structural ratchet strap survived, must have plucked it and said, "she's not going anywhere" before they decended.

More justification on why I don't need to improve at welding, just add more ratchet straps!

:)

Over the years I have made a growing list of ways not to die:

2 miles deep at the bottom of the ocean is now top of the list just above freezing on top of Mt Everest.

If I had known back in the day about shark attacks as I know now, I would have never ever set foot in the ocean or bought that mail order scuba diving gear which included a 12" Buck shark knife and the self teaching book, "Scuba Diving For Dummies" back in the early 70s.

Following along with the not getting eaten way to die, I was a little lax when I took my family to Glacier National Park about 7 years ago. Luckily, we didn't get eaten by a grizzly but we did see three of them. I worried about it the whole time though.

I once knew a sky diving instructor who offered me a free sky diving jump - declined that one.

I also knew an airplane stunt pilot who offered me a free ride - declined that one also. 

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

I wouldn't worry about the sharks too much. Lightning is much more dangerous. 

...the chances of getting eaten by a shark are 1 in 264 million. (The chances of simply being attacked by one are higher: 1 in 5 million.) The chances of being struck by lightning are about 1 in a million...

In reply to Toyman! :

I already jumped that shark. We were water skiing in a small (fresh water) bay with calm totally overcast weather. I had just finished skiing and had gotten into the boat and was throwing out the rope to my friend who was already in the water ready to go next. Suddenly my sister exclaimed, "All of your hair is standing on end!" I looked at my arms and all of the hair was sticking straight out as was my wet long head of hair and also my sister's and BIL's.

I could feel the charge building up throughout my body and with a bloody scream dove into the water swimming towards the bottom, the last thing I saw was my glasses floating down in front of me. After I couldn't hold my breath anymore I finally resurfaced, the static charge was gone and after I got back in the boat, I said that I ment to jump into the water to save everybody's life and we went back to the dock and put the boat away.

Actually, I was only concerned with my own life. 

Can't remember if any of these videos have been linked. Here is video of two low pressure vacuum implosion tests and the last is a high pressure test chamber implosion test.

High pressure implosion test occurs at 10:21 minutes above.

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

I collapsed a 10,000 gallon tank like that once. Vents are really important!

Back when I was a teen we used to drive up to La Riviere, Manitoba, Canada to ski at a resort in the Pembina Valley. There where these public spherical trash bins called Orbits everywhere along the highways and I always wanted to steal one and build a wet sub after watching James Bond Thunderball and a little 2001 a Space Odyssey. I would have placed a water proof box under the orb to house lead acid batteries and use the front of the box to provide added foot room space and use two electric trolling motors sticking out of the sides of the orb for propulsion and steering. Also a round plexiglass window hatch.

I could never figure out how to sneak one across the boarder though. Good thing because I would have been the first OrbitGate from Lake Sakakawea in 180 feet of water. 

Yahoo.com: Titan submersible's scientific director says the sub malfunctioned just prior to the Titanic dive