The Ocean Marine Department of Fireman’s Fund American has insured many unusual risks in many exotic areas of the world, but perhaps none was more unusual than a risk it helped insure earlier this year in the waters off the Southern California coast.

When the two-man hydro-jet research vehicle, "Diving Saucer" – designed by famed French underseas explorer Capt. JacquesYves Cousteau – submerged hundreds of feet below the Pacific in the coves off La Jolla, San Clemente, and Santa Barbara, Fireman’s Fund American was one of the lead insurers underwriting its safe return. The saucer was being demonstrated by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation for the U.S. Navy and other prospective customers. It had already made more than 150 dives in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, but never before in the Pacific Ocean or anywhere near this country.

Westinghouse, a long-time client of the Fireman’s Fund American Ocean Marine Department, which itself was involved in the design of a similar vehicle, decided to bring the saucer here from France to show what such a vessel was capable of doing. The saucer arrived in this country in late January, and the demonstrations took place in February and early March. Operating off its supporting surface ship, the motor vessel "Surf Tide," the saucer successfully completed 57 separate dives to depths of up to 1,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific.

Forty-four of these descents were into the waters of La Jolla Canyon, a well-charted area which has long been used for underseas research by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at San Diego. The other dives were made in Wilson Cove off San Clemente Island and in an area near Santa Barbara. The entire venture was insured by a quarter-million dollar Ocean Marine policy which provided hull insurance on the "Diving Saucer" itself, plus an all-risk form of liability coverage on the 22,000 pound hydraulic crane used to raise and lower the saucer from the sea, and other supporting surface equipment. Liability coverage was also included, protecting against accident and death the two French operators of the saucer, persons involved in the surface operation aboard the "Surf Tide," and prospective customers of Westinghouse who were taken out one at a time to witness the demonstrations.

The two operators of the "Diving Saucer" were experienced "subronauts." One of them had actually lived underwater for 30 days in an extensive underseas project near Port Sudan in the Red Sea in June, 1963, a project in which the saucer took part. During the venture the vehicle was "garaged" in a specially constructed hangar, supported by stilts, that rested upon a reef of the continental shelf 36 feet below the surface of the sea. The underside of the hangar was open to the sea so that the saucer, on return from an exploring session, could pop up into the air inside which was compressed to double atmospheric pressure to keep the ocean out. An electric winch at the roof of the hangar would hoist the saucer up into the dry area where she would discharge her crew, receive maintenance, and have her batteries recharged.

The "Diving Saucer" is 10 feet in diameter, 5.3 feet in height, and weighs approximately 7,000 pounds. Her two-man crew operate her by lying prone on opposite sides of a central water ballast tank that enables the craft to attain zero weight in the sea. Steering is done by turning two jets on opposite sides of the craft near the forward end, or stopping the flow of fuel to one of them.

The saucer is capable of turning left or right, pitching down or up, and going straight forward or backward. It is also able to spin completely around in one location, affording its crew a panoramic view of any underwater area from their normal prone position. Additional observation windows are located in the top half of the saucer. There are three of these, 120 degrees apart, and each providing a view of 170 degrees.

Descent and ascent of the saucer are controlled by droppable ballast weights. Fine adjustments in buoyancy are made by regulating the in-flow and outflow at the central water ballast tank. Contact with the surface is maintained by underwater phone and two-way radio. Powerful search lamps at the forward end of the vehicle enable the crew to record whatever they see on film.

Average cruise length for the saucer is about four hours. Between dives, during the Southern California demonstrations, it was hoisted aboard its supporting surface vessel, the "Surf Tide," an 80-foot steel work boat. Preliminary testing of its hoisting crane had taken place at Long Beach before the diving operations got under way. All went well. Fifty-seven descents were made into the deep waters of the Pacific, all insured by the Ocean Marine Department of Fireman’s Fund American, and each time the saucer returned intact.

[Fireman’s Fund Archives: 4-1-3-4-84, 0414]