[PSUBS-MAILIST] publicity

Mon Jun 29 22:02:45 EDT 2020

Well guy's
I did the taping segment with Jeff Foxworthy last Friday and he showed a
lot of interest in the sub even though the show was suspose to be about
getting an old Navy hard hat appraised. We talked for about a half an hour
and he asked me if I could undo the camera and give him a tour of the sub
which I did. I was able to mention the group and the name of the web site
but they are going to edit it down to a 5 minute segment so who knows if it
will make it or not. It will air in August so I'll let you guy's know when
I know. He told me that he wanted to let him know when it was done so he
could take a ride in it but I think he was probably only saying that for
the audience and a laugh but who knows. I would love to take him for a ride
but don't want to subject myself to all the liability.
Rick

On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 12:13 AM Rick Patton <satwelder at gmail.com> wrote:

> Mahalo!
> Rick
>
> On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 8:16 AM Jon Wallace via Personal_Submersibles <
> personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
>
>> facebook.com/groups/PSUBS
>>
>>
>> On Monday, June 22, 2020, 01:51:30 PM EDT, Rick Patton via
>> Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
>>
>>
>> FYI, I tested the subcon fittings yesterday that had a 150 psi rating to
>> 400 psi as that is as far as my gauge would go with no cable extrusion at
>> all. This was based on using a fitting on both sides of the penetraitor.
>> PS: Jon, I don't have a FB page but my wife does so we tried to find the
>> Psubs FB page with no luck for some reason. What are we suspose to enter to
>> find it?
>> Rick
>>
>> On Sat, Jun 20, 2020 at 9:45 AM via Personal_Submersibles <
>> personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
>>
>> Anything I could add would come from fireside reminiscing on George's
>> part, and crawl throughs on the sub itself. Be glad to chip in wherever I
>> can.
>> Vance
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jon Wallace via Personal_Submersibles <
>> personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
>> To: personal_submersibles at psubs.org
>> Sent: Sat, Jun 20, 2020 2:47 pm
>> Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] publicity
>>
>>
>> Vance, your memory is excellent.  I opened up the documentation last
>> night and started going through it again.  I need to put a timeline
>> together since many of the documents are scattered chronologically, but as
>> I said earlier, it's pretty obvious that it wasn't a good business
>> relationship and in the end everything just fell apart.  I've got some
>> interesting pictures of some early subs/experiments, also original
>> negatives and even a few original Ektachrome slides (remember those??) of
>> the K600 being hoisted by a crane.  I'm tempted to create a K600 archive to
>> memorialize the project on the website but I'm not sure anyone else is
>> really interested in the history.  I wonder how your memory corresponds to
>> what I am seeing in the documents and if there are any details you might be
>> able to fill in.
>>
>> An outline:
>> 2/19/76 - George Kittredge and SUB SERVICE of Alesund Norway represented
>> by Robert Hartnett, and Leiv Busaet, enter into a contract for
>> "...development of a small submarine having a maximum operating depth of
>> six hundred (600) feet, to be designed for use in the oil industry or such
>> other uses as may be profitable to SUB SERVICE and adaptable by KITTREDGE.
>> This submarine is known as the K-600 series submarine and shall include the
>> current prototype K-600 and such modifications as are approved by
>> KITTREDGE".
>>
>> Interestingly, SUB SERVICE was not an incorporated business at this time
>> with Hartnett and Busaet signing the contract in their individual
>> capacities.  The contract was to be adopted by SUB SERVICE after
>> incorporation.  Initial payment was $30,000 (equivalent to $130,000 today)
>> and he did not receive the balance until December 1980.  Kittredge wanted
>> certification by ABS, SUB SERVICE insisted on Det Norske Veritas (now
>> DNV-GL).  However Veritas appears to have been difficult to work with given
>> some letters I have between Kittredge and Hartnett.  According to those
>> letters Veritas was slow to respond to approval of plans and neither party
>> had confidence that Veritas had enough experience with submarines to
>> properly certify the vessel.  At one point Kittredge traveled to Oslo
>> Norway and met directly with Veritas engineers and there is talk from
>> Hartnett about Kittredge having to educate them in how to certify a
>> submarine.  This must be why they ended up with Lloyds although I haven't
>> seen any documents specifically addressing the change to Lloyds.
>>
>> 3/1/79 - Kittredge had a contract written to license manufacturing of the
>> K-600 to SUB SERVICE anywhere in the world except USA.  It looks to me like
>> this was initiated by SUB SERVICE, whom were seeking to partner with
>> Offshore Inspection Ltd of Glasgow, Scotland, to manufacture, market, sell,
>> and maintain K-600 submarines within UK and Ireland.  According to the
>> contract, SUB SERVICE would produce ten K-600 vessels per year, for three
>> years.  Kittredge would receive 20% of the construction costs for each
>> submarine as well as an hourly wage for writing and producing operation and
>> maintenance manuals.  SUB SERVICE was seeking a 50% profit margin on each
>> submarine.  Stipulations, and if you knew George you likely aren't
>> surprised by this, were that each manufacturing license required approval
>> by Kittredege "...in writing on a submarine by submarine basis" and "...no
>> modification whatsoever of the submarine known as the K-600 series without
>> the consent in writing of KITTREDGE".  Even though this is a contract
>> created by Kittredge in response to a business proposal by SUB SERVICE, I
>> do not have a signed copy of the contract.  And since no additional K-600's
>> were ever produced I think we can conclude that he either never signed the
>> contract or never gave approval for a license.  I suspect the former simply
>> because by this time the submarine was physically complete but he still had
>> not received the balance payment for the vessel.  My guess is he wasn't
>> going to sign anything until he got final payment for the existing K-600
>> but had the contract drawn up as a carrot.
>>
>> 6/21/79 - The K-600 is approved for certification by Lloyds.
>>
>> 12/1/79 - SUB SERVICE tells Kittredge they have a buyer from England for
>> the K-600 and two people want to travel to Maine to see the sub in
>> operation.  The buyers arrive 12/10/79 and on 12/11/79 Kittredge launches
>> the K-600 in Penobscot Bay and demos the submarine.  The men tell Kittredge
>> they will be purchasing it from SUB SERVICE for $125,000 and leave
>> confident that the transaction will proceed.  Obviously it doesn't, however
>> there's no documentation on who these folks represented or why the sale
>> ultimately failed.
>> 12/11/80 - After Many letters of promised dates for the payment balance
>> and many letters to lawyers on both sides, SUB SERVICE takes delivery from
>> Kittredge about 18 months after it was ready.  At the same time, SUB
>> SERVICE along with Kittredge met with Bath Iron Works in Maine and reached
>> an agreement whereby BIW would manufacture 10 submarine basic hulls which
>> Kittredge would finish and then ship to Europe.  It appears this never
>> developed into a contract or production.
>> About a week later Kittredge wrote SUB SERVICE asking what their
>> intention was for the other ten submarines they agreed to purchase in their
>> original 1976 contract.  Kittredge added that he was willing to release
>> them from the agreement if they would mutually release him from the
>> agreement.  I have the release document that Kittredge had drawn up, not
>> have a signed copy of it.  In 1982-83 SUB SERVICE had internal strife and
>> Hartnett informs Kittredge he is taking legal action against some of the
>> other owners over misplaced funds.  It's at this point I assume the company
>> eventually failed.  Whether because of the release agreement or the failure
>> of the company, no other K-600's were built.
>> As late as 1983, Hartnett was still writing Kittredge about potential
>> K-900 and K-1000, seemingly ready to strike out on his own.  Kittredge
>> responded at one point that he was 65 and retired.
>> Jon
>>
>>
>> On 6/18/2020 10:38 AM, via Personal_Submersibles wrote:
>>
>> Very cool. And I'm pretty sure George thought the Norwegian owners were
>> dreaming. Their idea was to put a sub on every rig complex in the North
>> Sea, and operate them with only small boats for comms and support. They
>> could have asked me. I'd have told them a little about winter gales and 5-8
>> meter seas. Aside from a bad idea at the start, what really happened was
>> that ROV technology caught up. The oil companies and engineers liked people
>> in subs, but the lawyers and insurance companies did not. George had a heck
>> of a time reacquiring the 600. It got hung up in legalese in Norway and was
>> going to be junked, or just stuck in a corner somewhere and forgotten. It
>> was and is (arguably) the nicest sub George ever built, so I was happy to
>> see it saved, and very pleased indeed when you snagged it.
>> Vance
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Personal_Submersibles mailing list
>> Personal_Submersibles at psubs.org
>> http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles
>> _______________________________________________
>> Personal_Submersibles mailing list
>> Personal_Submersibles at psubs.org
>> http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Personal_Submersibles mailing list
>> Personal_Submersibles at psubs.org
>> http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles
>> _______________________________________________
>> Personal_Submersibles mailing list
>> Personal_Submersibles at psubs.org
>> http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.whoweb.com/pipermail/personal_submersibles/attachments/20200629/1b175480/attachment.html>