[PSUBS-MAILIST] publicity

Mon Jun 22 14:15:15 EDT 2020

 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

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