No Front Windows Poem by gershon hepner

We, nearly all of us, have windows at the back,
and most of us have windows at the side,
but it’s the ones in front we tend to lack,
explaining why our angle isn’t wide.
We need immersibles to travel in
the deep, but it is very hard to plunge
into the darkness hidden by our skin,
and once inside to make a forward lunge,
because we have no windows except those
that let us look behind, or left and right,
observing our travails from what we chose
in journeys from which we cannot alight,
but cannot look to where we’ve never been,
ahead of us, because the view is blocked,
and we have no view of the Hippocrene
from the immersible in which we’re locked.
The present is a seabed where the dives
we make are from the back and side controlled,
and the tale we tell about our lives
is hollow as a diving bell when tolled.

Inspired, for the second time today, by John Donne, and by an article by William Broad, describing the construction of a new deep sea immersible which will replace Alvin (“New Sphere in Exploring the Abyss, ” NYT, August 26,2008) :

The new vehicle is to replace Alvin, which was the first submersible to illuminate the rusting hulk of the Titanic and the first to carry scientists down to discover the bizarre ecosystems of tube worms and other strange creatures that thrive in icy darkness. The United States used to have several submersibles — tiny submarines that dive extraordinarily deep. Alvin is the only one left, and after more than four decades of probing the sea’s depths it is to be retired. Its replacement, costing some $50 million, is to go deeper, move faster, stay down longer, cut the dark better, carry more scientific gear and maybe — just maybe — open a new era of exploration. Its architects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod describe it as “the most capable deep-sea research vehicle in the world.” Alvin can transport a pilot and two scientists down 2.8 miles, providing access to 62 percent of the dark seabed. The new vehicle is expected to descend more than four miles, opening 99 percent of the ocean floor to inquiry. But the greater depth means that the vehicle’s personnel sphere and its many other systems will face added tons of crushing pressure. “Technologically, it’s quite challenging, ” Robert S. Detrick Jr., a senior scientist and vice president for marine facilities and operations at Woods Hole, said of forging the new personnel sphere. “It’s also something that hasn’t been done for a long time in the United States.”…The overall process of forging, welding, machining, heat treating, cutting view ports, annealing, finishing and testing the new personnel sphere is to be done at several companies around the country and is expected to take about two years. The completed crew cabin, seven feet across, will be a foot wider than Alvin’s.Oceanographers say the new sphere will help open the sea’s depths. Its volume is 18 percent larger than Alvin’s, allowing twice as much room inside for racks of scientific equipment and a bit more space for passengers. Alvin has three thick windows through which the pilot and scientists can peer out at the undersea world. The new vehicle will have five, increasing the field of view and the chance for discovery and careful observation. “It’s going to be incredible, ” said Cindy L. Van Dover, a professor of marine biology at Duke University who has spent hundreds of hours diving in Alvin. She noted that scientists would have two windows that look forward. By contrast, Alvin’s scientific viewports look off to the side, with only the pilot getting the central view. “Forward is cool, ” she said, calling it rich in drama, lights and action. For instance, Dr. Van Dover said the forward view could best reveal a towering hot spring surrounded by exotic forms of life. “In Alvin, a scientist can’t see that, ” she said. “Also, you want to see where your samples are being taken and how they’re being taken. You want to be able to direct the pilot.”

8/26/08