West Alton Submarine
 

Space Ship
 

It is a space ship. It carried away Betty and Barney Hill for a couple of hours on September 19th, 1961. The ship was taken over by the Navy and used for their underground testing facility off Diamond Island.

Nice work again RG!!

I would like to ride in that thing but I'm sure I won't be able to fit in it! :confused:

It must take a small dud to operate something that small.

I would advise the occupant not to have pickled eggs and beer before submerging!!! :laugh:
eeeewwwww!

cp

Bathyscape?
 

Seems to me that this would be called a bathyscape, more designed for underwater research than a submarine would be. It appears that it is self navigating, and although considerably smaller and different in shape than the "Trieste", it would serve, on a lesser scale, a similar function, ie. underwater research. Maybe you will need a second flower pot (see the stone tower post if you read this one first!").

Boy, for a minute I thought....
 

it was the prototype for a new mandatory raft design under consideration by the Marine Patrol for next year (permits required, of course). The enclosed design would provide ample protection against boat collisions and keeps off those harmful UV rays too! :laugh:

Speed Buoy
 

It's a submersible sonar speed buoy. It will be placed underwater in the channel between Governor and Eagle islands. It will detect the speed of boats and relay the info to a nearby Marine Patrol boat that will hand out tickets.

Are you serious?

No offense Frdxplorer, but if you believe that, I want to talk to you about this bridge I have for sale... :D

Ok good. I was questioning my own sanity in asking but I wanted to make sure.

Sweet!
 

As a kid, having a mini sub for Winnipesaukee was my DREAM.

That thing look very cool. Might have to check that out this week.

Launching Pad
 

I absolutely agree with IG that this object is a space ship. I have it on good authority that this ancient structure is actually a launching pad for said space ship.
http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopo..._084_2-med.jpg
I wonder if the space ship comes with this property which is still FOR SALE :confused: :D

Where's the motor ?
 

I can only guess it's another stolen OB case :cool: Appears to me to be a observation bell that's lowered from a surface ship. I'm gonna say it's someone's way of repairing the dock (the remote manipulator arms are out back, unseen in this photo) in the cold spring Winni waters. I'm not saying it's Grant's or Senter Cove Guy's but I'm pretty sure it's not WinniDiver's. Once dock repair season is concluded it's used as a ride at Weirs Beach. For $12/ticket ($8.52 for kids under 14) you get towed underwater behind the WinniWaterTaxi for a once-around Gov's Island where you can see firsthand the many natural wonders the lake has to offer. Yes there are rocks, water, blind fish (you can tell by the way the swim around and bump into the rocks), Fountains (dare I call them water Fountains ;) ) and more fish that are, well let's say this nicely for the kids, "resting peacefully" (you can tell by the belly-up position and lack of any apparent movement). Yup a sure fire hit for the kids of all ages, I'm surprised y'all never seen this before :laugh: Better buy your tickets now before the Executive Committee hears about the fun and starts an investigation !

ps - Those "sleeping" fish are actually imported from Norway (surely you've heard of bluefish, Norwegian Blue fish ?!?) every season and they're just "pining for the fjords" come summer-time. :rolleye2:

pps - Any one interested in the Gov. I bridge, well contact me, I have quite a deal for you !!! But sssshh, let's just keep this between you and me, OK ?

http://orangecow.org/pythonet/pet-shop.html

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.........
 

M&M...

You have a fine and practical idea for this contraption...dock repair. Of course, it would be best for crib docks, but it could also solve myriad issues with locating moorings (see Winn Diver's thread about losing some cutters in cruddy visibility last season), retreiving lost items, etc. Plus, we wouldn't have to deal with these darn wetsuits, which automagically seem to shrink over the winter months. ;)

These Threads Are Such Fun!
 

IG, are you just making that up? :confused:
I wonder why there hasn’t been more underwater testing as in the past?

Mee-n-Mac, you have a riotous sense of humor! :laugh:

:idea: Grant, how about you take a plant as Upthesaukee suggested and find out more for us. While your there, find out what it would take to get this baby up and out into the lake.

West Alton Sub
 

I know not what it is, however, if my in-laws see it, it shall become my new upthesaukee bedroom.


(in-laws: pesky critters that migrate northward in Late June and Southward in Late July) :rolleye2:

Dive! Dive! Dive!
 

I'll be passing through there around 2:30 or so tomorrow, and might just stop by to check this baby out...

Hey throw some blinking christmas lights on that bad boy and you have yourself a great flying saucer look-a-like.

On a more serious note - after exhaustive research, this device is actually the one and only "offical" Winnipesaukee drain plug. It's been removed completely because of all the rain we've had lately and complaints the lake level was way to high. It will be replaced when the lake level is to low.

:emb:

I have a cottage in that area. I haven't seen the sub and don't know for sure who built it or owned it, but I speculate that it originated witha local named Bob Sederquist. He died several years ago and was a certified diver and went on many recovery dives in the lake. He was a plumber by trade and a pretty ingenious guy. He may have built or acquired it as something to fool around in the lake with.

local yokel
 

I will have to ask Bob son, Peter to see if the above rumor is true. Peter been with the merchant marines for years. No telling if this is something he found on one of his exotic cruises. :eek:

Huh?
 

Upthesaukee...just curious...what is your IQ? I've always considered myself fairly intelligent and well-read, but I've never heard or even seen the word "bathyscape" in my life.

Are you a professor? Scholar? Directly related to Albert Einstein?

Diving bell, next gen.
 

Me either. I think it's because he means bathyscaph.

Upthesaukee (Finder too!)
 

As per Dictionary.com :

bathyscape
n : navigable deep diving vessel for underwater exploration [syn: bathyscaphe, bathyscaph]

bathyscaph
n. A free-diving deep-sea vessel consisting of a large flotation hull with a crewed observation capsule attached to its underside, usually capable of reaching full ocean depths.

I stand corrected.

Its a flying saucer!
 

No, no, no, no! Its the UFO that has been spotted on several occasions over the lake.
"Beam me up Scotty"


A Norwegian Blue is a Parrot! The sleeping fish are tired from the fish dance. (you need to know Python to get that one). At least a sleeping fish is better than sleeping with the fish!

Finder, my post was not meant as a correction, sorry it came across that way.
I’d never heard of the word bathyscape or bathyscaph and both words fit here nicely. Kudos to you and Upthesaukee, you’re very sharp. We all expanded our vocabulary today. (Not that there will ever be a good opportunity to use these words again!) :laugh:
BTW, what is it you find?

No. You were right. I'm guessing that Upthesaukee and I were both in a learning mode, maybe high school, when the Trieste was big news. That's back before SCUBA.

Oh. Forgot about what I find. I just found a swimfloat and a canoe and posted after notifying the Lake Patrol. The raft/float was posted on Lake Debris. The canoe is wreaked and I think blew up on Windswept Island last fall.

Doing expert crossword puzzles???
 

Actually, as a kid I did a lot of SCUBA diving here on the lake, and looked forward to seeing Jacques Cousteau and the Calypso on TV. I would dream about being able to go to the places he did and dive the locations he did, with the not so rare dream of diving with the man himself. Somewhere along the way I learned / heard / discovered the word bathyscape and somehow it has stayed with me. Having seen the item in question nearly everytime we drive Rte 11, it popped back in my mind several years ago now, and stayed there. And yes, I do remember the Trieste (first hand)! I still want to know when it (our local item) was last in the water.
Geez, at times I think I remember when sand was discovered!:)

Oh, and the IQ thing...I think I may have been able to have taught Einstein everything he knew, and my wife would think I would have to look up to see "zero IQ", so it's somewhere in the middle, I guess.:coolsm:

Difficult times to stand corrected...
 

I don't know. :confused:

Google asks why I "misspelled" bathyscaph, preferring instead bathyscaphe, which then returned 700% more references. Internet dictionaries battle between introducing new "commonly misspelled" words as the "correct" spelling.

I always check my 54-year-old American College Dictionary*. There is no entry for either bathyscape, bathyscaph, or bathyscaphe. They reference bathysphere, which suggests that bathyscape, bathyscaph, or bathyscaphe are post-SCUBA inventions. (Cousteau worked on SCUBA at the end of WWII).

According to Google, Cousteau's own saucer was named "Denise", and is much sleeker, fancier, and faster (15 KPH+) than RG's could ever have been.

Like Grant, I had a teenager's plans for a Winnipesaukee submersible. (And still have the blueprints).

RG's submersible is far more sophisticated than my design, which was made of welded flat steel plates and which required a pair of snorkels: One for intake (air for the operators), and an exhaust doubling to rid CO2 and the exhaust for the lawnmower engine that provided propulsion. No reverse. It needs a diver's flag now, too.

*(That 1951 dictionary does not have an entry for "raunchy" -- what times those must have been!)

Dive,dive,dive.....
 

OK, I'll have to don my old submarine patrol cap and dive into this thread... :)

Actually there are three terms in use here that are really not interchangeable, as they describe three unique undersea vessels.

A submarine is a vessel that while designed to operate underwater, also has substantial abilities to navigate while surfaced.

A bathyscape (or bathyscapth) is an undersea vessel, usually designed for deep water exploration, that operates underwater independently via self propelled operation.

A bathysphere (or what used to be called a diving bell) is an undersea vessel that is tethered to the surface by cables. These cables are not only used to raise and lower the device, but may also provide electrical power, oxygen and communication lines. The device may have small thrusters for limited maneuvering, but is still tethered from above.

The spherical design of the device pictured leads me to believe it is a bathyssphere, as no propulsion device is apparent. It would be easier to determine if a shot of the rear (or side view) of the object was provided.

Neat picture! :)

Don't Mean To Be Pain...
 

I think you mispelled "misspelled". LOL.

Okay, enough with the English lessons...time to go enjoy the lake.

There are a lot of spellings here at Google, including bathyskape. 'Guess it depends on the country of origin. Bathyscapth shows up nowhere.

Here's a site with a very impressive progression of underwater bathys-whatevers. (But not "our" bathys-whatever).

http://www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/tauch.htm

Trieste had a diving ball (bathysphere) attached. (But Trieste itself is called a bathyscaphe). It was most famously operated by Jean-Luc -- I mean -- Jacques Piccard.

I have a 5x7 B&W photograph of the Trieste being discussed dockside by a uniformed Navy captain (four-striper) and two engineers. It was bought at an Alton yard sale, and the Trieste photo was preserved behind the primary, now long-forgotten, photograph.

IG & mcdude were right
 

Since it seems that standing corrected is problematical, I sit corrected. It appears from the photo taken (below) that IG and mcdude and gtxrider were correct in their assessments (above). My mistake was not remembering that the Wiers ride/dock repair unit is more of an orangy yellow than the object in question. Good catch girls ... errr ... girl and guys! ;)

At Last...
 

Great job Mee-n-Mac. At last someone got it right!

Too funny..

Will it launch in the rain?

you are excused
 

What do you mean girls? Reply: Excuse me I have a cold.
Nudge, nudge...

Nice picture now it will be on one of those in search of UFOs show.

Alien Spaceship Launch at the Lake!
 

Heh! Heh! Heh! M-n-M.....you crack me up! You're absolutely demented. I like that in a person(s)!! I'll never be able to drive by this spot again without looking for a space ship in the sky! McD :D

Nothing to do with aliens...
 

...but a whole lot to do with all the rain we've had!!!! the doggone thing has obviously been lifted off its West Alton Mooring and has floated down Rte 11 and 11B to Gilford, fortunately getting caught on the stone ediface, now known as Mt. Ararat, or Mt Ismellarat, or Mt Whattheheckisthat????!!!!!!
Great work on the photo, MnM!

Talent!
 

Nice job M&M.....ROTFLOL!