Dan Taylor’s yellow submarine
After seeing this picture on one of my favourite sites, News of the Unreal, I thought I’d do a bit of research on this yellow submarine.
The one-man submarine in the picture is named Viperfish and was launched and built by American inventor and submarine enthusiast Dan Scott Taylor in 1969 for the hunt for Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, in Scotland. It has been said that it inspired the Beatle’s song of the same name.
I found this on h2g2.com:
Dan had to take an umbrella with him as the hatch leaked and on one voyage he couldn’t close the hatch properly. Rather than abandon the dive, he went down until the pressure helped shut the hatch and then pumped the water out. He laughed while others worried for him waiting on the bank of the Loch. A brave man indeed!
Unfortunately he didn’t encounter Nessie, although the submarine was disturbed in the water by something large and quick-moving.
Dan was working on a larger, more stable submarine, Nessa, that would travel at 20 knots per hour (23 miles per hour), and included a biopsy instrument for taking a sample from the animal, but unfortunately he died before completion in 2005. It was 75% complete then and has happily since been passed on to Atlantica Expeditions and renamed the Dan Scott Taylor II.
Here’s some more information on his missions:
http://www.lorencoleman.com/taylor_obituary.html
And here’s an interview with Dan about his intention to get a tissue sample from Nessie:
http://www.trueauthority.com/cryptozoology/daninterview.htm
There are two 1969 photographs taken around the time of the Viperfish’s launch here
The submarine can be seen as part of the Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition in Drumnadrochit – it’s right beside the enormous loch.
Born in Belfast and now living in London, Julie McNamee is involved in internet marketing as a day job and blogging as a hobby. She’s interested in all things quirky and Fortean, as well as art, photography and theatre. Her blog Quirky Travel, specializes in London and Paris top tips and off the beaten path information with subjects such as London film locations and unusual Paris museums.
