Hi Everybody:



I thought you all might  enjoy a peek at my newest creation. Personally, I think the subject mater is so charming- and  "A True Story" so to speak, as this mini sub has been the primary business for her owner, Douglas, and two pilots  for the last 26 years.  In this photo, I'm recreating in a sort of whimsical fashion the scene from when the hull was first rolled at this very factory over 26 years ago.  I'm trying to create a sort of Tom Sawyer / Huckleberry Finn  feeling of "painting the fence,"   Mixed with a sort of Norman Rockwell flavor too.  I want people/ kids,  to view this very large print on the wall of a museum some day and say to them selves,-   Wow!  We should build a submarine too!

Motivation for me was not so much the really cool look of the mini sub placed against a backdrop of a rough factory environment, the welding torch or sparks from the grinder.   Rather it is the passion of the owner, pictured in the open hatch  (now in his 70'ies ) who had the  determination to pursue his vision, and by doing so is allowed to live out his dream of actually building a mini sub and using it as a business for all those years. They still do operate it to this day.  When I write the article for the image ( not that anybody will read them,)  I think it gives a real sense of all that goes into a man's life, his passions, hopes, creativity, and pursuit of happiness that is the cornerstone of our great country.  With all the very bad things in the world these days, I like to offer something that is positive and real.

Maybe subtly, I would hope that people might intuitively understand that this photo is not just a pretty picture of a mini submarine, but speaks to a much broader issues of passion, determination, capitalism, free enterprise,  the pursuit of happiness, and the skills needed to build such a wonderful jewel of engineering.  (stay in school!)

Interestingly, and so in keeping with the spirit of the picture, on the right side of the photo, is the forman of the foundry, Armando.  He is actually the nephew of the original forman who rolled the hull all those years ago.  On the left hand side of the frame, grinding away is the primary pilot, Chris Ijames, the sub pilot for 20 years now.

Notice the bucket of paint, and little Beatles Yellow Submarine included in the photo- just for fun.  All of the equipment on the foreground floor is from the sub it's self.  We had to drag the sub and some of  the loose equipment from Torrance where it lives in Doug's machine shop, via a flat bed tow truck to the city of Santa Fe Springs for the purpose of creating this image.  This photo took almost a year for all the different schedules to align so we could collectively work on making such a pretty picture.  It was truly a collaborative effort.  The foundry is Paramount Roll and Forming of Santa Fe Springs.  From start to finish, the shot took over 16 hours of moving sub and equipment, propping, and then finally shooting that evening when it got dark enough to paint with light.  Over 700 frames were exposed that evening.  The following day- Sunday, we hauled it all back again.

This submarine DELTA  has an operational depth of 1,200 feet.  A max critical depth of 1,600 feet and a crush depth of about 2,000 feet.  It can stay submerged in an emergency for 3 days straight. so they have enough chemical scrubber agents and battery power to operate the system for the whole 3 days if need be.  In an emergency, the entire propeller, propeller housing and rudder assembly , along with the rudder control linkage mechanism can be jettisoned, in order to free the sub from fouling of a net or other items that might get snagged on the structure.  They had to do just that once at a depth of about 1,000 feet while they were exploring a ship wreck.  Pretty scary stuff.  You can see the spare prop housing on the floor, that  they use it to go back down and retrieve the discarded hardware.

They offered me a ride on the sub this summer if they get the contract to dive off the coast here locally.  There will be several days where they go out and back each day from Oxnard, and I'm welcome to come along and go down for 4 hours or so.  We'll see.....

Warm Regards To You All:  Eric Curry