Pioneer Work Class ROVs (CURV-III & 21) – Part 2
Claudio Paschoa
July 24, 2014
Following the famous search and retrieval of the lost hydrogen bomb off Palomares, CURV-I continued its operations with the U.S. Navy, and continued being upgrades by later generations of vehicles designated CURV II, CURV II-B, CURV II-C and finally CURV III. In 1973, CURV-III performed the deepest underwater rescue in history when it rescued two men 1,575 feet (480 m) deep, off the southwest coast of Ireland, who were stranded 76 hours in the submersible Pisces III with just minutes of air remaining. On Wednesday, August 29th, the aft sphere of the submersible, a smaller watertight sphere where the machinery was, had flooded when the hatch was pulled off during recovery operations near the surface. Suddenly the sub was over a ton heavier and sank like a rock.