Carol:

There was an article about this some years ago in the now defunct AquaCorps
magazine.  I have the copy at home and could scan it if someone wanted to
run it through OCR.  Apparently the British have these sub escape suits.
The Americans rely on rescue from rescue subs.

Basically it is very very scary stuff.

If I remember right, what they do is put you in this survival suit/dry suit
with built in buoyancy and a small gas supply.  Then they stuff you in an
airlock and pressurize you down to the water pressure at that depth in just
a few seconds.  You have to blow your ears the whole time you are being
pressurized or your ear drums will instantly burst with the pressure.  Then
they release the airlock hatch and blow you to the surface in a cloud of
bubbles and you scream the whole way up so your lungs don't burst.

This assumes, of course, that the pressure inside the sub is at 1 atm.  If
so, your exposure to pressure at depth is so short that you don't have time
to on-gas.  Otherwise you would instantly embolize if you tried this.

If you guys are interested in this article I can scan it tonight.

-Kent-

> -----Original Message-----
> From: SouthEast US Scuba Diving Travel list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Carol Reid
> Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2000 8:24 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [SCUBA-SE] Kursk submarine
>
>
> Hi,
> On UK TV last night, they had an interview with a submariner in
> Portsmouth.
> He displayed an orange survival suit which he said all UK subs were fitted
> with - one for each sea-man aboard and if they had them in the
> Russian ship,
> the men would use them and survive.
> I don't understand how these suits work.
> Can any one explain?
> Carol
>