The greatest underwater rescue in history happened in 1973 and began with a hunch: “Our job was to survive”
Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson were 1,640 feet deep for over 84 hours and were rescued when they had almost no oxygen left.
On Wednesday, August 29, 1973, Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson set out for their workday laying telephone cable for the United Kingdom’s Post Office. Though it sounded like a fairly normal job, the task was complicated by the fact that the cable had to be laid nearly 1,640 feet deep, 149 miles off the coast of Ireland, in a small submersible called Pisces III —a vessel 19.7 feet long, 6.6 feet wide, and 9.8 feet high— with a 5.9-foot compartment where two people had to work for eight hours, kneeling and almost curled up.
The dive began at 1:15 a.m., but Mallinson hadn’t slept in 26 hours. The day before, a part of the small submarine had been damaged, and he had spent the entire day repairing it. He also did something unusual that ultimately saved their lives. The sub’s oxygen tank was half full, more than enough for the next dive. According to protocol, it didn’t need to be changed yet, but Mallinson, inexplicably, insisted on replacing it. “I could have gotten in trouble for changing a half-used tank.” It was also a long, hard, and complicated task because the tank was heavy. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, he wouldn’t have done it. “It was a hunch.”
Crashes into the seabed
At 9:18 a.m. on Wednesday, the Vickers Voyager, the submersible’s mothership, began recovering the Pisces III. During the maneuver, a tow rope got tangled and suddenly opened the aft hatch, where the machinery was located. The compartment flooded, increasing the submersible’s weight by one ton. It hung like a pendulum until the cable snapped and the vessel began to plunge rapidly toward the seabed. Chapman and Mallinson released all the lead ballast, about 397 pounds, in an attempt to slow the fall: “It was terrifying, like a Stuka dive-bombing with engines roaring and gauges spinning.” They curled up, stuffed a rag in their mouths to avoid biting their tongues… and crashed into the ocean floor at a speed of 40.39 miles per hour.
The Pisces III landed upside down, but the structure miraculously withstood the impact, with no cracks or leaks. The communication system was still working, and they were able to send a message saying they were okay. The problem now was figuring out how to bring them up from where they were—about 1,575 feet below the surface—before the oxygen ran out.
Surviving Against All Odds
Thanks to Mallinson having installed a full tank, they calculated they had about 66 hours of oxygen left, which would last them until early Saturday morning. Still, in an attempt to conserve the air they had, the pair decided to keep talking and movement to a minimum, to make their supply last as long as possible. Space for the men was minimal, and they reported spending most of their time in the fetal position. They were soaked, the temperature was around 35 °F, and Mallinson was recovering from food poisoning. They only had a cheese and chutney sandwich and a can of lemonade. “But our job was to survive.”
Chapman was a 28-year-old engineer who had just gotten married. Mallinson was 35, had been a Royal Navy diver, was married, and had four children.
Throughout Wednesday and Thursday, the entire rescue protocol was organized. Bad weather and ocean currents made it even more difficult. The U.S. Navy sent the USNS Mizar with the CURV-III, a remotely operated submarine used to recover objects from the seabed. The Royal Navy sent the HMS Hecate and the Seaforth Clansman. The mini-submarines Pisces II and V were flown to the coast of Ireland so that the mother ship Vickers Voyager could pick them up and transport them to the rescue area.
Race Against Oxygen Shortage
Almost everything went wrong on Friday. The mini-submarines were experiencing malfunctions, time was running out, and the exact location of the Pisces III was still unknown. The Pisces V, the only mini-submarine operating without issues, found it shortly before 1 p.m. It spent until midnight trying to attach a line but failed. At that point, the Pisces III had about three hours of oxygen left, plus whatever Chapman and Mallinson had managed to save by staying nearly motionless. Both positioned themselves as high as possible in the capsule to breathe less contaminated air. The lithium hydroxide they used to remove CO₂ was also nearly depleted.
At 9:40 a.m. on Saturday, the CURV-III was finally able to connect a cable to the Pisces III after many hours of attempts. In theory, the air should have run out six and a half hours earlier. The ascent began at 10:50. The mini-submarine didn’t reach the surface until 1:17 p.m. It took a nerve-wracking 30 minutes to open the hatch, which was jammed. Eighty-four hours and thirty minutes after the dive began, Chapman and Mallinson emerged from the vessel. Later, when the tank was checked, investigators found only 12 minutes of oxygen remaining. They had managed to extend their duration by nearly 11 hours and were still saved by a miracle. Fifty-two years later, the deepest rescue with survivors in history remains that of the Pisces III.
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