BUILDING THE NAUTILUS MINISUB
Pat
discloses how the HYPERSUB project became the NAUTILUS MINISUB.
One night while I was doing a rough
sketch of a crash-bar to protect the front view ports, I visualized the
HYPERSUB running fast awash, and the image of Captain Nemo’s NAUTILUS on the attack
came to mind. I did the math and
realized it might just be possible to build a steel NAUTILUS replica outer hull
around the HYPERSUB pressure hull.
Because 20,000 LEAGUES had been the movie that started my interest in
underwater technologies as a young boy; and because there had never been an
actual manned submarine of Disney NAUTILUS configuration in any scale; the
project seemed worthwhile. And from
that moment on the HYPERSUB project became the NAUTILUS MINISUB.
We immediately went looking for images
of the Disney NAUTILUS to work from. At
the time, they were pretty hard to find.
So we rented the video and took pictures of the screen with a 35mm
camera.
Lynn got the local librarian to do a
search for us, which only turned up one very faded Xerox copy of Harry
Hathorne’s article about the filming of LEAGUES in a 1984 issue of
CINEFANTASTIQUE Magazine. In those
pages was a small copy of the original plans drawn by the Disney Art
Department, from which the 11-foot special effects model NAUTILUS was made for
the movie. The quality of our copy was
very poor, but we enlarged it and that became our working plans from which all
further templates were made. The improved
NAUTILUS sketch (above) was made using those plans as a basis.
These are the
actual working plans from which the NAUTILUS MINISUB was made. I took the small CINEFANTASTIQUE image to a
copying shop and enlarged them so the sub was a little more than two feet
long. Then the process involved taking
measurements from the drawing, and scaling-up mathematically. For complex shapes like the raker arch,
dorsal fin, tail fins, and keels, I transferred numerous measurements to
large-scale, hand-drawn graph paper, and played “connect the dots”. Details like the raming spur and skiff were
missing from the Xerox copy of the CINEFANTASTIQUE magazine image, so I had to
estimate those and draw then in myself.
From the working plans I was able to
calculate the size of various parts of the submarine. Then, I made full sized cardboard templates of each part, and
checked them for fit on the pressure hull.
Above is a picture of the cardboard template for the port-side aft
horizontal stabilizing fin, taped in place.
After the shape of the cardboard
template was transferred to steel with an electric engraving tool, I used an
oxy-acetylene torch to cut the part out, and then ground it to shape with an
electric grinder.
Here are some of the basic parts, after cutting and grinding,
laid out on the work area floor.
The “Mad Submarine Builder” using the torch while making a hull
modification.
This roller-cradle was made from the
wheels of a shopping cart, and enabled me to rotate the hull to various angles to
facilitate work on the undersides.
I worked basically alone, outdoors, in
all kinds of weather. But when the
rains got too bad I’d take some jobs inside.
In this picture, I’m inside the small shed in our backyard, welding in
reinforcements to the cabin structure.
Outside in the yard again. With the sub rolled to one side on the
cradle, I’m welding the exterior hull plates around the salon window.
Sitting upright with much of the hull
plating in place, the HYPERSUB pressure hull is beginning to look more and more
like the NAUTILUS every day.
Welding the aft ballast tank plates together on a very hot day.
Here, the submarine is rolled to
Starboard to facilitate work on the bottom of the hull. At this point the exterior hull / ballast
tanks are just about finished.
With the final part of the keel
installed, and because of the submarine’s weight at this point in the
construction process, the roller cradle was no longer of any use, so I used a
“cherry picker” engine hoist to lift the sub and set it down on blocks for the
next phase of work.
What’s it like
to make a homebuilt submarine? A lot of
hard, heavy, hot, dirty work. On a
Summer day, operating a torch, arc welder, and grinder inside a steel pressure
hull is anything but fun. On the day
this picture was taken, it was over 105 degrees inside the sub. Filthy dirty and drenched with sweat, I had
time for a cold Coke while standing in the hatch, and then back inside. It was like that for more than two years: I
woke up with a worklist, lived with the project, and fell asleep figuring out
what needed to be done the next day.
Maybe that explains why so many talk about building subs, but so few
actually do it. It’s hard work.
Here’s the sub on blocks, under a tarp
which protected it from the rain. At
this point the exterior metalwork was finished to a test-ready condition.
I sawed a hole in the plywood enclosure
surrounding our working area, lifted the submarine with a pair of engine
hoists, rolled the launching trailer underneath, and lowered the NAUTILUS down
onto it.
This is a very poor quality B&W Polaroid
picture (the only camera we had at the time) of a very significant moment. At this point I had gotten to the end of a
two-and-one-half year-long work list, and had just successfully operated all
internal systems for the first time.
Everything was up and running correctly. The next item on the list said, “Proceed to Float Test #1”. People told me I couldn’t do it; and there
were times along the way when I never thought I’d ever see this day arrive, but
I was finally there: exhausted, multiple injuries, but very happy.
Here’s a picture that was actually
taken at a later date (after the fourth float test) but it shows the interior
pilot’s compartment, controls, and instruments that I’d just tested. This is what I had to work with when I did the
proving tests.
March 1991: “Captain Nemo” and the NAUTILUS: All Systems GO!