Alvin, a submersible built in the 1960s, has an enviable record: the craft has made more than 5,000 journeys to great depths, was the first to take people to the wreck of the Titanic, and even rescued a nuclear warhead from the seabed. The submersible is remembered for the tragic mission of another craft, the Titan, which imploded during its voyage to the Titanic wreck area.
Alvin, however, is very different titanium, OceanGate’s dive boat. The vehicle, which according to CNN has been in service for almost 60 years, meets strict safety regulations; carried out highly dangerous missions effectively and ensured the safety of its crew at all times. The submersible was designed with a spherical shape which experts say is ideal for traveling to great depths and withstanding the crushing pressure of the seabed.
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Equipped with seven reversible engines and two robotic arms, Alvin can survive journeys of up to 4,000 miles; Features that give researchers access to 99 percent of the ocean floor, according to a nonprofit research body, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which operates the submersible Alvin.
Designed in 1964, the Alvin sleeps up to three people and is one of the oldest sea submersibles still in service. The craft hit the media in 1986 when it made the first manned voyage to the wreck of the Titanic, an expedition led by oceanographer Robert Ballard.
“There are two things you can’t sacrifice when innovating: quality and safety.”
Lisa Levin, marine ecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography University of San Diegosaid of the Alvin, “It’s better than most submarines because it’s more reliable and safer and does more work. It’s probably contributed more to deepsea exploration than any other submarine out there.”
The submersible enabled significant advances in marine exploration work, such as a closeup (a technique that maximizes the visualization of detail) of the MidAtlantic Ridge, the world’s most extensive underwater mountain range, in 1974; and the discovery of wildlife in the hot springs of the Galápagos Islands in 1977. Alvin also recovered an Hbomb nearly 3,000 feet in the Mediterranean Sea in 1966. J. Carl Hartsfield, a retired naval officer, compared the Alvin to the Titan. Captain said, “There are two things you can’t sacrifice in innovation: quality and safety.”
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