Sub Marine Explorer
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The Sub Marine Explorer was a submarine built in 1865 by Julius H. Kroehl in New York for the Pacific Pearl Company. It was hand powered and had a system of air pressure tanks and water ballast tanks, advanced for the age. Problems with decompression sickness led to the abandonment of the Sub Marine Explorer in Panama in 1869
The Sub Marine Explorer had an air pressure tank which was filled with compressed air at a pressure of 4 bar by an external support vessel. Water ballast tanks were flooded to make the Sub Marine Explorer descend. Pressurized air was then released into the vessel to build up enough pressure so it would be possible to open two hatches on the underside, while keeping water out. This means that air pressure inside the submarine had to equal water pressure at diving depth, exposing the crew to high pressure, making them susceptible to decompression sickness, which was unknown at the time. To ascend back to the surface, more pressurized air was used to empty the ballast tanks of water.
After having been built in New York the Sub Marine Explorer was disassembled and transported to Panama in 1866, where she was reassembled to harvest oysters and pearls in the Pearl Islands. Experimental dives with the Sub Marine Explorer led to the death of Kroehl in 1867 of decompression sickness. Still, the Sub Marine Explorer completed at least one successful harvest mission during 11 days in August 1869 near the island of San Telmo. But all divers dying of decompression sickness immediately after led to the abandonment of the mission.
The wreck of the Sub Marine Explorer was rediscovered on San Telmo in the Pearl Islands in 2001 by James Delgado of the Vancouver Maritime Museum. The wreck was well-known to locals, but was assumed to be a remnant of the second world war.
