IN HIS Hawaiian shirt and blue jeans, L. Bruce Jones looks every inch the Florida yachtsman. From his home in Pompano Beach on the Florida coast, between Miami and Palm Beach, Jones looks out onto palm trees and beyond that to row upon row of luxury yachts. His mission these days is to convince the people who purchase these expensive toys that simply cruising back and forth on the ocean is no longer the ultimate leisure activity. That distinction, he believes, should be reserved for luxury cruising beneath the surface.
Jones is president of a company called U.S. Submarines, and the craft he鈥檚 itching to build would turn Captain Nemo green with envy. Borrowing the best of submersible technologies from the navy and deep-sea researchers, the company has designed several personal submarines. More like luxury motor cruisers than U-571, these subs behave on the surface much like large and particularly well-appointed yachts. You can cruise the Caribbean or island-hop across the Indian Ocean in real style. Then, any time the fancy takes you-and without putting down your Martini, slipping off your Gucci shoes or leaving your luxurious leather armchair-you can dive as deep as 300 metres to view the marvels of the ocean through huge, plexiglas windows.
The idea that people should be able to explore the ocean鈥檚 depths in comfort struck Jones during an impromptu night-time picnic at the bottom of a crystal-clear lagoon off the Caribbean island of St Maarten. It was 1990, and he was getting ready to put a new tourist submarine through its paces. Realising he would have to work late, he asked his wife to join him at the dock for dinner but on the spur of the moment, they decided to take the sub down and have their meal underwater. As they sipped champagne and nibbled on cheese and crackers, they switched on the sub鈥檚 spotlights and gazed out of the windows. 鈥淚t was really sort of romantic,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淚 thought: You know what? People ought to have the chance to own a sub that would do this sort of thing, where you could go down and spend the night on the bottom.鈥�
Advertisement
The vehicle of Jones鈥檚 dreams is a million miles from a standard research sub. Craft like Alvin, the deep-sea research vessel operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, are cramped capsules with limited endurance that must be transported to their dive site by a support ship. Even today鈥檚 tourist submarines, which operate at holiday spots such as Grand Cayman or Monaco, only travel a few kilometres out to sea. And while military submarines can cover huge distances, they don鈥檛 offer so much as a glimpse of the watery world outside. Clearly, says Jones, there鈥檚 a gap in the market.
So U.S. Submarines, which is already involved in the tourist sub business, has now created a set of long-range, luxury craft-on the drawing board, at least. The smallest, the Discovery (see Diagram), is just 8 metres long and costs almost $2 million. At the other end of the scale is the Poseidon, an 86-metre monster designed for underwater cruises, with a price tag of more than $100 million.
If you saw one of Jones鈥檚 craft on the surface, you might mistake it for an ordinary motor yacht. The steel pressure hull with its large viewports is encased in a streamlined, boat-shaped hull that allows it to operate like any surface vessel. The subs have a cruising range of up to 5000 kilometres, powered by a diesel engine that also charges the sub鈥檚 batteries. To dive, the diesel is shut down and the propellers, lighting and other accessories are powered by the battery alone. Battery capacity limits the underwater range to about 300 kilometres. Cut out the travelling, though, and the batteries can provide power for a week or so on the bottom.
A better but more expensive alternative, says Jones, is a modified diesel engine that can carry on running underwater. This engine uses a system called 鈥渁ir independent propulsion鈥�, which is designed to boost underwater endurance. The engine itself is housed in a sealed compartment, and it burns fuel and oxygen that are stored in onboard tanks. The exhaust gases it produces are vented out of the sub into the sea.
What really makes these craft unique, however, is their interiors. Take the Seattle 1000, a 36-metre sub capable of crossing the Atlantic non-stop. Its pressure hull is a triple-decker arrangement. The top level contains the bridge, and a small passenger lounge. Before the craft submerges, the crew move downstairs to a cockpit in the front of the hull from where they control the sub underwater. Meanwhile, the passengers can enjoy a choice of three staterooms with large windows and en suite bathrooms, or they simply plonk themselves down in an armchair in the large viewing lounge at the front of the vessel. As for furnishings, says Jones, they鈥檒l use the finest fabrics and leather, wool carpets and dark wood panelling. 鈥淗ell, we鈥檒l do whatever anybody wants,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f people are going to spend this kind of money they鈥檙e going to want to be comfortable.鈥�
In the Poseidon, this underwater extravagance will reach dizzying heights. 鈥淲e want mahogany panels,鈥� says Jones. 鈥淓ach cabin will have a 2-metre viewport that鈥檚 going to provide a pretty incredible view.鈥� Each will also be equipped with passenger-operated feeders to dispense fish food, sparking an underwater spectacular at the push of a button. And then upstairs, there鈥檚 the bar. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a pretty cool layout,鈥� he says.
U.S. Submarines has yet to build one of its luxury craft-yet they are no mere pipe dream. 鈥淚 always thought the concept was kind of wild, but the overall idea looks like it鈥檚 feasible,鈥� says Bob Gwin, an engineer for 30 years with Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, which has built many of the US Navy鈥檚 nuclear submarines. 鈥淚 think these guys have the capability of doing a lot of great stuff.鈥� What鈥檚 been missing so far, he says, is a paying customer. 鈥淭hey just need somebody with imagination, a little nerve and a lot of money.鈥�
That person may be Don Bell. After a successful career as a venture capitalist based in Silicon Valley, Bell has retired at the ripe old age of 38, and expects to sign a contract soon with U.S. Submarines for a Seattle 1000. At first he was put off by the lack of any ready-built prototype to look at. But he鈥檚 going ahead anyway. 鈥淭here鈥檚 got to be somebody to take the plunge,鈥� he says, 鈥渁nd it might as well be me.鈥� If all goes to plan, he will be leaving Florida about two years from now in his new luxury sub bound for Cape Horn, and then California.
Within a year or so, U.S. Submarines plans to shift operations to the United Arab Emirates, where Jones says investors are ready to fund a complete manufacturing complex for the luxury subs. Then, he hopes, the company will build at least one prototype to show prospective customers.
One unnamed cruise line has already funded the company to design a Poseidon sub that will take passengers on two or three-day underwater trips for around $2500 a day. And an oil company has contracted U.S. Submarines to design a 50-metre sub, in which it plans to make the first underwater circumnavigation of the globe by a non-military submarine.
The craft may also appeal to universities looking for the chance to conduct underwater research in a way that鈥檚 never been possible before, says Jones. For this role, one of the key aspects of the luxury subs is their autonomy. Utility versions could be an attractive option for ocean researchers. Today鈥檚 research submersibles are invaluable study platforms, but they only stay down for a few hours and the need for support vessels means they cost a fortune to run. But with an autonomous sub, research teams could cruise to a desired location, submerge to the right spot and conduct long-term observations of a reef, seamount or other site for a week or so, in relative comfort and at a fraction of the cost of operating existing submersibles.
Enjoying the seas in this way seems such a good idea that it鈥檚 probably no surprise that another company is on the same tack. Olympic Submarine Technologies, based in Shelton, Washington, is also busy designing luxury submarines and has already signed a contract to build a 15-metre sub. 鈥淥ut here on the West coast there鈥檚 an incredible number of unexplored ship wrecks,鈥� says Jim Carnahan, Olympic鈥檚 marketing director. 鈥淭hese submarines can go look at them. You get down there, you find them and turn on the lights. No other human beings on Earth will be able to do that.鈥�