VideoRay
Swimming Robot Included in Submerged, a Memoir of Underwater
Archeology Missions by Daniel Lenihan
National Park Service
Underwater Archeologist Brings to Life the Survey of USS Arizona
with 8-Pound ROV more…
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The adventure of the tiny, swimming VideoRay robot
inside the sunken USS Arizona battleship is documented
in a new book by Daniel Lenihan, entitled Submerged: Adventures
of America’s Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team. Among
other missions of surveying, mapping, investigating, and protecting
the shipwrecks and sites that constitute America’s sunken
heritage, Submerged documents missions through the USS Arizona.
On this mission, the tiny, remote-control VideoRay was identified
as the only piece of equipment small enough to penetrate places
divers dare not go while not disturbing the archeological integrity
of the wreck.
Sized slightly larger than a shoe box, VideoRay
sneaked through portholes, air ducts, manholes, and holes created
by bomb blasts. With its video eye, the VideoRay captured incredible
details of ship life and entered cabins unseen by human eyes since
1943. Bob Christ, vice president of VideoRay, was the ROV pilot
for the mission. In the chapter entitled “Pearl 2001: The
Adventure Continues,” Lenihan recounts an exploration with
the VideoRay into the second deck:
Suddenly, while moving methodically
from compartment to compartment, with its little mechanical claw
full of sensors, the ROV has stopped dead, the operator seemingly
paralyzed by the image clearly displayed on the monitor. It’s
an ordinary enough scene on the surface but here it makes the
hair stand up on my neck. The VideoRay has entered a closet, or
“hanging locker,” in Navy parlance. It is sending
back a signal that reconstitutes on the screen as an officer’s
dress jacket, still neatly arranged on its hanger where it was
placed sixty years earlier, probably on the night of December
6, 1941.
One of the world's leading underwater archeologists,
Lenihan recounts experiences from his 24 years as founder and
head of the Submerged Cultural Resources Unit (SCRU) team of the
National Park Service. On the mission inside the USS Arizona,
Lenihan helped execute the largest mapping project ever conducted
underwater. He shares his personal journey to explore and video
the entire ship. In Lenihan’s presentations and book signings
around the U.S., he displays a picture of two VideoRays on their
way into the Arizona. During interviews, he often talks
about the VideoRay as the latest interior imaging technology.
A delight for anyone interested in diving, archeology,
American history, adventure, and rescue missions, this fast-paced
book brings an entirely new perspective to the marvels of America’s
underwater treasures.
SUBMERGED: ADVENTURES OF AMERICA’S
MOST ELITE UNDERWATER ARCHEOLOGY TEAM (Newmarket Press,
$25.95 hardcover, 6” x 9”, 304 pp., Pub Date: March
4, 2002).
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