comex N°2

CONTENTS
6
HISTORY
RMS CARPATHIA
A legend resurfaces
10
INTERVIEW
PAUL-HENRI NARGEOLET
Submarine intervention consultant
“Every dive is a new challenge”
12
TRAVEL
CAPRI
Heaven on Earth
4 &14
NEWS
Responsible Publisher: Michèle Fructus
Editor-in-Chief: Frédéric Gauch
Editor: Martin Greenfire
Photo credits: Comex, Marc Delauze, FOTOTECA Enit/Paola Ghirotti, Alexis
Rosenfeld, RMS Titanic, Jean-Bernard Villareal
Cover : The Mediterranean Shearwater, Marc Delauze
This magazine was designed and produced by MAYA press
www.mayapress.net - Tel.: 0811 651 605
FOREWORD
I
am pleased to present you with the second issue of Comex Magazine. It
is an invitation to immerse yourself in the past, through two events that
marked maritime history at the dawn of the 20th century, explained in a special
report and then told by Paul Henri Nargeolet. We will thus go back in time to
the fateful night of April 14th, 1912, which saw the sinking of the largest cruise
ship in the world, the Titanic. Immortalized by James Cameron’s movie, this
first major maritime tragedy involved another vessel, the Carpathia: the first
to reach the site of the accident, the day
after the sinking. Torpedoed by a German
U-Boat in the last months of the First
World War, the Carpathia also ended up
at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, six
years after the Titanic. It was there, south
of the Irish coast, nearly 80 years after its
disappearance, that Comex went to visit
it, during an operation for the American
company that holds the rights to the
wreckage of this other legendary vessel.
Next, you will travel to Capri, a land
coveted by all the great people of the
Henri Germain DELAUZE
world, from antiquity to the present day.
CEO
It was during the Archeomar mission,
conducted for the Italian Ministry of
Culture, that Comex’s teams visited the island. This time, it was their turn to
fall in love with this little heaven on earth.
This magazine also presents the latest news of Comex’s industrial activities,
such as the design and manufacture of innovative technological products.
These testify to the know-how and inventiveness of the company’s engineers
and technicians, who are always ready to imagine and develop very highquality equipment, even under urgent circumstances, when a tool that doesn’t
yet exist turns out to be crucial to a project already underway. It is at times
like these that the men and women of Comex often show their mettle, with
their talent for very quickly finding and implementing solutions tailored to
clients’ needs.
Thanks to this know-how and professional approach, Comex continues to
participate all year long in scientific missions at sea, in partnership with
corporate customers and large international consortiums. But now, I will let you
discover them for yourself, in this magazine.
3
NEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNE
Comex
joins Venus
Comex is participating in the Venus project, run by a
consortium of eleven partners recognized for their expertise
in extremely cutting-edge areas, such as underwater
archaeology and exploration, knowledge representation,
virtual reality and digital records keeping. This large-scope
project, which is coordinated by the CNRS (French National
Center for Scientific Research), has the objective of providing
scientists with practical methods and tools for the virtual
exploration of underwater archaeological sites located at
great depths. Venus is aiming to study a wide variety of
shipwrecks already documented at various depths, in order
to develop methods and techniques for acquiring new data,
in particular by using the latest autonomous remotecontrolled submersibles, fitted with sonar and
photogrammetric equipment.
FLASHES
FOR THE DEEP SEA
As part of its archaeological activities, Comex has developed a
new waterproof housing for digital photography. Capable of
accommodating a flash compatible with a digital camera, it will
optimize the production and exploitation of photogrammetric
coverage of underwater excavation sites. Designed for a rated
depth of 1,000 meters, the new CxFL 1000 housing is adaptable
to submarines and ROVs. Photogrammetry requires a shooting
speed of approximately two images per second; and uniform
lighting of the target, which makes it necessary to run at least
two flashes at a time. To equip the new housing, Comex chose
to turn to the Nikon SB-800, which can be used in smart multiflash mode. The assembly is designed so that several flashes can
be arranged on the seafloor area to be photographed, with the
same lighting possibilities as in a real studio. Already used
successfully several times, the CxFL 1000 housing made it
possible to produce an excellent photogrammetric survey of the
shipwrecks of the Voile, in Marseille, Bocca Grande and Punta
dell Archera, in Capri, Piannosa, in Italy, as well as Barco da
Telha, in Sesimbra, Portugal..
4
COLLABORATION
PIPE WATCH
CARVES OUT
A NICHE IN OIL
Comex is collaborating on the Pipe Watch project, which has the
aim of supplying offshore oilfield operators with a diagnosis and
analysis tool for the movement of underwater pipelines and
structures, so as to check their intactness and predict possible
fatigue problems. The temperature and pressure cycles sustained by
underwater-oilfield production lines generate stresses and
movements in the pipelines, capable of causing breakage due to
mechanical fatigue. Pipe Watch thus plans to develop an
autonomous device for measuring and recording these movements.
This new system will make it possible to obtain customized
acquisition via the parameterization of the sampling and position
of the targets. This project is part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur
Maritime Cluster, supported by Oséo-Anvar (French innovation
agency) and the PACA Regional Council. The industrial partners
of Pipe Watch are Subsea Tech, Chrisar Software, IFREMER,
Principia and Comex for the naval vessels and marine equipment.
TELEX
ı MINIBEX AT THE ANTIBES YACHT SHOW.
The Antibes Yacht Show 2008 was held from
April 17th through 20th at the famous marina on
the Riviera. Amongst the “guest stars” this year
were the Minibex, one of Comex’s two
oceanographic vessels, and its autonomous twoman submarine Remora 2000, which is designed,
built and marketed by Comex. This was a great
opportunity to confirm the excellent image that
Comex enjoys amongst the general public and
enthusiasts of exceptional boats. ı SUCCESSFUL MOVE
FOR THE SAINTE-ANNE CHAMBER. The transfer of the
hyperbaric chamber of
the
Sainte-Anne
military hospital in
Toulon, which has just
been moved, was a
success. Comex must
now reassemble the
chamber, prior to a
phase of trials that will
be performed before
this piece of equipment, manufactured in Comex’s
workshops in Marseille, is put back into service.
JANUS ON
A SPECIAL MISSION FOR DCNS
JANUS II, the flagship of the
COMEX fleet, has been assigned this
year to assist and monitor the sea
trials of the first SCORPENE-class
submarine, built by DCNS (French
naval shipbuilder) for the Royal
Malaysian Navy. These trials are
slated to be carried out all year long
between Cherbourg, Lorient and
Toulon. After performing its first
hovering maneuver on January 25th,
2008, the Tunku Abdul Rahman is
now in the Morbihan area in Brittany,
UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY
End of the campaign for Archeomar
The Archeomar project, which was probably the biggest European
underwater-archaeology project ever launched, has just come to an end.
Coordinated by the Italian Ministry of Culture, it was undertaken with the
very close collaboration of Comex, and consisted in the search for, detection
and identification of shipwrecks south of Italy, off the coasts of Calabria,
Campania, Basilicata and Puglia.
France. The site of DCNS Lorient is
serving as a base for the deep-water
trials on the submarine in the Bay of
Biscay,
scheduled
to
last
approximately four months. Once
the submarine has undergone some
final adjustments over the summer,
it will take to the sea again and head
for Toulon, where its arrival is
awaited in mid-October 2008. At this
point, the acceptance tests will be
performed and the final delivery will
be made to the Malaysian client.
Miniature chamber,
maximum results
Comex has been entrusted with the design and
manufacture of a miniature hyperbaric
chamber for testing samples of materials at
great depths. This module is pressure-and
temperature-controlled
by
a
forward-
compatible automated system. Real-time data
recording is featured, with a function for export
to a standard-format computer file. The
operator controls the module via an industrial,
ergonomically-designed operator console
comprising a high-resolution touch screen. The
man/machine
interface
features
many
functions, such as real-time data plotting,
measurement and unit status displays, electric
actuator control and automatic cycle
parameterization. The two fluids used during
testing will be water and air.
5
HISTORY
90 years after it sank
JANUS BRINGS ARTIFACTS
OF THE CARPATHIA
BACK TO THE SURFACE
6
Backed by the extensive experience it has acquired in searching for, working
on and refloating shipwrecks in deep water, Comex participated in a salvaging
operation on the wreck of the Carpathia for the American firm, RMS Titanic.
During this project, which lasted about a fortnight in August 2007, the
oceanographic research vessel Janus II, the flagship of Comex, retrieved
99 objects found at the site of the shipwreck, at a depth of more than
150 meters, in spite of sea conditions that were often very difficult. This was
an opportunity for Comex to once more demonstrate the know-how and
professional approach it applies to this very particular type of mission, which
requires reactivity, imagination and technical mastery to create and implement
new tools and work strategies to cope with the project’s contingencies. This is
the adventure that we would like to share with you, in great detail.
7
HISTORY
After 90 years spent under the cold waters of
the English Channel, roughly one hundred
objects from RMS Carpathia saw the light of day
once again, thanks to the combined efforts of
RMS Titanic and Comex. On the right, this pair of
binoculars may very well have belonged to the
captain of the Carpathia, Henry Rostron.
Opposite, the vessel’s engine-room control,
which probably gave the last orders to the
engine before the fateful sinking occurred.
RMS CARPATHIA:
A LEGEND RESURFACES
HOW SHOULD THE OBJECTS
BE BROUGHT UP FROM THE ABYSS?
During this mission on the shipwreck of the Carpathia, a suctioncup manipulator system had to be mounted on the Super Achille
ROV to enable the recovery of certain objects that would have
been difficult to grasp with a conventional manipulator mounted
on an articulated arm. But one major problem remained: all the
suction cups developed by Comex up until then were
hydraulically powered. As the Super Achille ROV is not equipped
with a hydraulic unit, some inventiveness was called for. An
electric version of the suction-cup manipulator was thus developed
and fine-tuned quickly. In the end, a rather unsophisticated
prototype of this system was used on the Carpathia
project. This device proved to be
as reliable as it is efficient to
use. The decision to
manufacture an “off-the-shelf”
suction-cup pump was thus
taken at the end of the project.
The objective was to design a
tool that would not only be
effective, but also fast to install
on and remove from the ROV,
while
remaining
very
lightweight. Another Comex
innovation is the reversal of the
pumping direction, which
means the system can run equally well in both suction modewith the suction cup-and blowing mode. This means that it is
possible to dust off, and even de-sludge, certain objects. And
Comex’s engineers came up with even more potential applications,
such as mineral and biological sample taking.
TWO TRAGEDIES MEET IN HISTORY
The Titanic and the Carpathia both met a tragic fate, six years
apart. These two shipwrecks have since become legends in
maritime history. The first one, because it remains the largest
civilian naval tragedy in peacetime; and the second one,
torpedoed by a German U-Boat in 1918, because it had saved
the survivors of the first shipwreck, the day after the Titanic
sank, in April 1912. Twenty years after the discovery of the
remains of the Titanic in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,
Comex has just participated in a new operation on the wreck
of the Carpathia for the American company RMS Titanic. In
October 2000, the National Underwater & Marine Agency
(NUMA) discovered the shipwreck of the Carpathia at a depth
of 156 meters. Two weeks later, the NUMA announced that it
had filmed the first video footage of the wreck. On June 21,
2001, RMS Titanic Inc., which was already the owner of the
wreck of which it bears the name, acquired the Carpathia, which
it sold for 3 million dollars to the American company
SeaVenture, in February 2007. In a separate contract, the two
companies reached an agreement on the basis of 1.5 million
dollars, to jointly exhibit the objects found on the Carpathia
and the Titanic.
99
This is the number of
objects from the
Carpathia wreck,
including a pair of
binoculars, crockery, an
engine-room control, a
porthole and much
more, brought up to the
surface by the Super
Achille ROV in 22 dives.
THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC
It was 23:40 hours, in the night of April 14-15, 1912. The cruise
liner was sailing very far north on the Atlantic Ocean, when the
lookouts in the crow’s nest on the main mast saw an iceberg straight
ahead, about 600 meters from the vessel. A few minutes later, the
collision occurred. Although she tried to veer to port, the cruise ship
could not avoid the berg, which caused several tears in the ship’s
hull, in two contiguous compartments, like a claw scratch about
5 meters wide on the steel shell, drowning the first six watertight
compartments, through the principle of
communicating vessels. At 00:15 hours, Captain
Smith sent the CQD (Come Quickly Danger) signal
to all vessels capable of hearing it, giving the corrected
position of 41°46N and 51°14W. It wasn’t until 0:25
hours, once the magnitude of the coming disaster
had been appreciated, that the first SOS in maritime
history was sent out. The Titanic, described as
unsinkable prior to this inaugural voyage, sank in
just a few tens of minutes into the depths of the ocean,
taking with her over 1,500 people out of the 2,227 onboard.
Between 00:15 hours and 02:17 hours, several vessels heard the
distress signals of the Titanic. Amongst them was RMS Carpathia,
which headed full steam ahead for the sinking ship. But it wasn’t
until around 5am that she finally arrived at the site of the sinking.
Of the 868 survivors of the catastrophe, she saved 705. “There
were the screams, the cries for help of people who were running...
We thought nothing could ever be worse than these cries. But
then, there was the silence...the silence of death”, testified one
survivor. The rescue operation lasted seven long hours before the
ship set sail for New York, the Titanic’s final destination.
RMS CARPATHIA
On April 11, 1912, the Royal Mail Steamer Carpathia left New York
for Gibraltar. In the night of April 14th to 15th, 1912, it was just 58 miles
from the Titanic when she received the first distress signals. In May
1912, a few weeks after the rescue, the commander of the Carpathia,
“
It was at 0:25 hours that
the first SOS in maritime history
was sent out by the Titanic
”
Henry Rostron, was rewarded by the grateful survivors. He received
a silver “loving cup” and a medal representing his ship designed by
Molly Brown, one of the survivors of the shipwreck immortalized
by James Cameron’s film, Titanic. The Carpathia finished her career
tragically six years later, at the end of the First World War, when she
was hit by three torpedoes from U-Boat-55 of the Kriegsmarine. She
sank on the same day at 12:40 hours, about 220 km west of Fastnet
Rock, south of the Irish coast.
9
INTERVIEW WITH A SPECIALIST
PAUL-HENRI NARGEOLET
SUBMARINE INTERVENTION CONSULTANT
“Every dive is
a new challenge”
The man who rediscovered
the Titanic managed the
excavation of the
Carpathia with Comex.
10
“
You participated in the first missions on the wreckage
of the Titanic. What memory do you have of them?
I did, indeed, participate in five Titanic expeditions. They were
all carried out with the Nadir/Nautile tandem of the IFREMER
(French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea). I have
a memory of a great human adventure. Working at a depth of
3,800 meters is not easy, especially to recover 5,000 objects,
ranging from a thimble to a piece of hull weighing nearly 20 tons.
It requires equipment that is perfectly mastered by trained crews.
Each dive is a new challenge for which you have to use tools
adapted to the object to be brought up. These are tools that,
oftentimes, have been designed and made the night before.
One of the portholes of the
Carpathia, brought up by the
excavation crew during a dive.
It is said that the Carpathia sank with the cup given by
Molly Brown to the captain, in thanks from the survivors
of the Titanic. Did you find it?
How can you explain the renewed interest in the
Carpathia?
This vessel ended the journey of the Titanic’s survivors by
disembarking them in New York. She became famous at the
time, but was quickly forgotten. Since she was torpedoed, on
July 17th, 1918, she only stayed in the memory of the survivors
of the two shipwrecks. But the discovery of the wreck of the
Titanic, in 1985, brought her back into people’s minds. And
the question “what happened to the Carpathia?” re-emerged.
“
I participated in five
Titanic expeditions
”
RMS Carpathia has been called the “Widow’s Ship”.
Why is that?
Due to the adage, “women and children first”, few men
amongst the passengers were allowed to or succeeded in
embarking on the lifeboats of the Titanic. A total of 705 people,
a majority of whom were women and children, were rescued;
hence the nickname.
In what position and at what depth does the
shipwreck lie?
First of all, you have to remember that the shipwreck is in a
difficult zone, on the path of all the depressions that cross
the North Atlantic. The weather there is often abominable.
The ship is lying flat, at a depth of 155 meters. The damage
caused by the three torpedoes that sank the ship is perfectly
visible on the sonar images.
What was the objective of the excavation project in
which Comex and its vessel, Janus II, participated?
Comex supplied the human and material resources required
for this expedition. The goal of this campaign was to take a
survey of the wreck and to situate and salvage objects. During
this mission, the wreck was filmed from every possible angle
in high-definition video, and many photos were taken. About
a hundred objects were recovered by the Super Achille ROV.
High-resolution sonar images were also taken all around the
shipwreck. Janus worked for a fortnight, 24 hours a day,
dynamically positioned over the wreckage. The weather
conditions, which were difficult at first, improved quickly,
which made the job easier for us.
No, we did not find the famous “loving cup”. The very poor
condition of the wreck made any search for specific objects very
difficult. Especially since the historical evidence gathered prior
to the mission did not enable us to determine with certainty if
this cup was still on board or not. And research carried out since
then, in the archives, proved that it was not. Apparently, it left
the ship in 1913 with Captain Rostron, who was commanding
the ship when the Titanic’s survivors were rescued. Thus, it
should be in the hands of Captain Rostron’s descendants. Maybe
it will be one of the objects that will be revealed during the
exhibition that should be organized by RMS Titanic.
What will become of these objects?
The objects salvaged from the wreck are currently being restored.
The goal is to “passivate” them to prevent them from being damaged
by contact with air. Depending on the materials, the restoration
can last several months, or in certain cases, even several years. As
for the objects of the Carpathia, the restoration work should be
finished in July. A Carpathia/Titanic exhibition should be held in
London in the following months.
Is another inspection planned? With or without Comex?
The initial goals, that is to say, to study the wreck and recover a
significant number of objects, were met by the mission carried out
in August 2007. Given the condition of the shipwreck, no new
Carpathia expeditions are planned.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Paul-Henri Nargeolet spent
22 years in the French Navy as a
naval officer specializing in mine
clearance, diving and deep-sea
interventions. For ten years, he
was in charge of the submersibles
of the French Institute for Sea
Research and Exploitation
(IFREMER), and then for seven
years he ran the company, Aqua+.
During this time, he participated
in many scientific research
campaigns, technical missions
and archaeological expeditions
on many wrecks of all sorts, and
in particular on the shipwreck of
the Titanic. He currently lives in
the US.
11
TRAVEL
The Island of Capri, located in the Bay of Naples, has been known since
ancient times for its beauty and good living. The rich Romans made it one
of their favorite holiday spots. It was during the Archeomar mission that
CAPRI
HEAVEN ON EARTH
the crew of the Minibex was able, in its turn, to discover its charms, as
if nothing had changed on the island in over twenty centuries.
I
n July 2007, the Minibex was
navigating in Italian waters,
searching for wrecks. Comex’s
crew had to identify them and
take photogrammetric records of each one,
as part of the Archeomar contract entered
into with the Italian Ministry of Culture.
The project was headed by a consortium
of companies, including Nautilus. During
this mission, the Minibex’s path took it
past Capri. Such a wonderful opportunity
for the crew to discover this mythic
island, where the great people of this
world have always loved to come
rejuvenate. In the last century, Jean
Cocteau, André Gide, Oscar Wilde,
Jacques d’Adelswärd and Pablo Picasso
stayed on Capri. They appreciated its
atmosphere, the variety of its landscapes,
the richness of its ancient and modern
architecture, but also the luxury boutiques
and fine establishments that developed
with the arrival of tourism. The coast,
with its dolomite cliffs overhanging the
sea, is dotted with marvelous caves and
surrounded by rocks in the most fantastic
12
shapes, such as the Faraglioni (photo
above), two spectacular peaks emerging
from the sea; irresistible.
COVETED SINCE
ROMAN TIMES
Capri is a very small island, just
6 kilometers long and 3 kilometers
wide, located in the prolongation of
the Sorrentino Peninsula. The name
Capri comes from the Greek word
“
which was inhabited already in the
Paleolithic era, was first Greek, and
then Roman. It was when he visited
Capri in 29 BC that Caesar fell in love
with its incomparable beauty. He thus
decided to buy it from Naples, in
exchange for the neighboring Island
of Ischia, which was, nonetheless,
vaster and richer. Tiberius, his
successor at the head of the Roman
Empire, lived on the island from AD
27 to 36. He had twelve villas built
In addition to the city of Capri,
there is the island’s climate and the
splendors of the flora
kapros, which means wild boar, not
from the Latin Caprae, which means
goat; the numerous fossilized wild
boar remains found on the island
confirm this explanation. The island,
”
there, dedicated to twelve Olympian
gods, and in particular, Villa Jovis,
where he settled to govern his empire.
The island then reverted to the control
of the Duchy of Naples and the island
HELPFUL INFO
> Italian Tourist Board
ENIT 23, rue de la Paix
75002 Paris
www.enit-france.com
> AACST
Information Bureau
capritourism@capri. it
> Capri Hotel Services Center
[email protected]
Capri -a uniquely charming, sunny
island with exotic flavors- is the
best place to go for peace and
quiet. All the bright little streets
and alleys will enchant you, and all
the hikes and boat rides will let
you discover marvelous
landscapes. Previous page, the
famous Faraglioni: two spectacular
peaks emerging from the sea.
was subjected to Saracen incursions
in the 6 th and 7 th centuries, and then
the domination of the Lombardi.
Next came the Normans (in the 13 th
century), the Angevins (in the 14th), the
Aragons (15th), the Spanish (16th), the
Austrians (17th), the French (18th) and
the English (19th). What’s more, it was
during those years that artists, writers,
poets and all sorts of intellectuals
started flocking to the island, drawn by
the ambiance, the beauty and the
climate of Capri.
CHARMING NATURE,
ELEGANT STREETS
The little city of Capri is located between
Mount Tiberio and Mount Solario, with
Marina Grande to the north and Marina
Piccola to the south. To fully appreciate
its charms, the best time to discover it is
in the evening, when all is peaceful and
quiet, once the tourists, who descend
upon it by the thousands during the day,
have gone back to the continent.
Wandering through the little lanes,
whitewashed with lime, watching the
sunset and enjoying the return of peace
and quiet to the Piazetta, the central
square, will give you incomparable
pleasure. But in addition to the city of
Capri, there is the island’s climate,
infinitely mild, and the splendors of the
flora, which includes no less than
850 species and 133 varieties in a surface
area that is, nonetheless, small. Also not
to be missed: the ancient vestiges, the
palace of the Roman Emperor Tiberiusthe famous Villa Jovis and the equally
famous Azzura, the most famous sea cave
in Capri, formerly known as Gramola.
Rediscovered in 1826 by the German
painter Auguste Kopisch, it can be visited
every day from 9am to one hour before
sunset, sea conditions permitting.
Our selection
of restaurants
> L’ADD’O RICCIO
A restaurant overlooking the sea in
Anacapri a few meters away from
the Blue Grotto.
Località Grotta Azzura
80071 Anacapri
Phone: +39 081 8371380
> AL GROTTINO
Located a short distance from the
famous square of Capri, this
restaurant is in a 14th century
building with magnificent arches.
Via longano, 27
80073 Capri
Phone: +39 081 8370584
> BUCA DI BACCO
A small, pleasant restaurant located
on the ruins of the old Greek wall at
the heart of the old town of Capri.
To find out more about Comex’s
mission on the Italian coast,
visit the website: www.archeomar.it
Via Longano, 35
80073 Capri
Phone: +39 081 8370723
E-mail : [email protected]
13
NEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNE
Submarine update The two-man submarine Remora 2000 is in the
process of passing the mark of 600 dives, without ever having encountered
the slightest problem. As for its sister vessel, the Thetis, operated by the
Hellenic Center for Marine Research (HCMR), the equivalent of the French
IFREMER (French Institute for Sea Research and Exploitation) it is
pursuing its activities with the same success. The missions assigned to it
range from marine surveys to refloating operations, together with projects
for the private sector, biology and marine geology.
WITH DP CX,
DYNAMIC POSITIONING
BECOMES AFFORDABLE
Comex has developed a dynamic positioning system that is
economical and easy to install, use and maintain. Once the vessel
is at the desired position, there is just a single button to push
and the DP Comex system takes care of the rest. The DP Cx
solution meets all Comex’s high quality standards. Choosing DP
Cx means taking advantage of forty-five years of innovation and
solutions tested tested on-and under-all the seas in the world, in
all types of weather. Assembled with mostly standard,
commercially-available components, which makes maintenance
easier and reduces costs, the DP Cx dynamic positioning system
can be adapted to all types of propulsion and navigation
instruments, with no modifications to the initial setup. It can be
integrated into the console or delivered on a separate stand,
depending on the customer’s wishes and the boat’s capacities.
The system is generic and adaptable to all types of boats. Comex
delivers a complete dynamic positioning system. The Dp Cx
offers several operating modes:
• manual mode, which makes it possible to control the vessel
via a biaxial joystick and a rotational control. The manual
control devices can optionally be located on the main console
and on the remote console;
• Auto-Cap mode, which controls the vessel’s current course.
New signals relating to the course can be implemented by
pressing on the console buttons or by entering the signals;
• autoposition mode (DP mode), which controls the vessel’s
position and course. In this mode, all the manual controls are
inhibited for greater safety;
• point homing mode, for tracking the trajectory with
management of the vessel’s drift;
• target tracking mode, for tracking and following unmanned
submersibles, AUVs, ROVs and submarines.
6,300 m
ALOSE CLASSIFIED AS A
HISTORICAL MONUMENT
In an order dated February 21, 2008, the French Minister of
Culture and Communications decreed that the submarine
Alose would be classified as a historical monument. The Alose,
the oldest French submarine, is exhibited at Comex’s
headquarters, on Boulevard des Océans in Marseille. After
Jean-Pierre Joncheray discovered the submersible, in May
1975, Comex took charge of refloating it. The Alose is one of
twenty Naide class submarines, built during the First World
War. 23.5 meters long, 2.26 meters wide, weighing 68 tons,
these submarines were propelled on the surface by a 70 HP
Diesel benzene engine coupled with an electric motor, and
when submerged, they were propelled by an electric motor
powered by a storage battery. Its cruising speed was 5 knots
on the surface and 2 knots submerged. It had a crew of
12 men, including 2 officers. On Thursday, March 28, 1918,
in Fréjus Bay (Var, France), the Alose was targeted by a
seaplane piloted by Albert Duval, whose passenger was the
famous inventor and scholar, Commanding Officer Le Prieur.
The airplane dropped two 70 kg bombs, which hit the
submarine and sank it in the space of a few minutes.
ı For more information, visit: www.comex.fr
A new trial chamber sized for a depth of 6,300 meters has just emerged from the workshops of Comex.
It was designed to validate the mechanical strength of housings. An automated system for monitoring all the parameters
and controlling the various actuators makes this equipment entirely autonomous. The fluid used during the tests is
industrial water at room temperature. Its compression speed can vary from 500 m/min to 5,000 m/min.
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More good reading
SAINT-EXUPÉRY
L’Histoire de Marseille
illustrée, by Jean Contrucci,
Three books
not to be missed
(published by le Pérégrinateur
On September 7th, 1998, Jean-Claude Bianco, a fisherman from Marseille,
caught in the nets of his fishing boat, the Horizon, a small, much corroded
silver identity bracelet. The blackened piece, which seemed ordinary enough,
was soon found to have an inscription that was to transform the life of the
fisherman from Sormiou. By simply scraping the metal with his thumb, he
managed to read three lines engraved on the bracelet’s plate: Antoine de
Saint-Exupéry-Consuelo, c/o Reynal and Hitchcock, 386, 4th Ave. NYC.
Thanks to this fabulous discovery, Jean-Claude Bianco had just found the
trace of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. The famous aviator,
the hero of the French airmail company the Aéropostale, and the successful
author of Night Flight, Wind, Sand and Stars, Flight to Arras and The Little
Prince, had vanished into thin air on July 31, 1944, somewhere between
Corsica and the Alps, during a photographic reconnaissance mission at the
commands of his Lighting F5-B. By following this lead provided by the
fisherman, a diver from Marseille, Luc Vanrell, found the remains of this
mythical airplane, offshore from the calanques of Marseille. Brought back to
the surface by Comex in September 2003, this debris made it possible to
formally identify the aircraft with which Antoine de Saint-Exupéry performed
his last mission. Since then, in collaboration with Lino von Gartzen, a German
specialist of World War II aircraft, Luc Vanrell went even farther, finding the
German pilot who shot down the father of the Little Prince on that fateful
day, thanks to a Messerschmitt engine found amongst the wreckage of SaintExupéry’s Lightning. Many press reports and several books have been written
on the story of this amazing and historic discovery.
he attracted a huge following
www.leperegrinateurediteur.com).
Born in 1939, the journalist and
writer Jean Contrucci worked for
many
years
at
the
daily
newspaper Le Provençal, where
with his reports and feature
stories on Marseille, especially
his column “It Happened in
Marseille”, published until 1998.
He is also the author (with Roger
Duchêne), of Marseille, 2 600 ans
d’histoire.
We recommend three books by those who participated the most closely in this incredible
investigation in deep waters and under open skies:
ı Le Mystère Englouti de Saint-Exupéry, by Jean-Claude Bianco (published by Ramsay) written in
collaboration with Philippe Cousin and prefaced by Patrick Poivre d’Arvor.
ı Saint-Ex, la Fin du Mystère, by Hervé Vaudoit, a reporter for the daily newspaper, La Provence, Alexis
Rosenfeld, underwater photographer, and Philippe Castellano, aviation historian (published by Filipacchi).
ı Saint-Exupéry, l’ultime secret, by Luc Vanrell and Jacques Pradel (published by Rocher), prefaced by
Alain Decaux, of the French Academy.
15