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National Geographic : 1960 Nov
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HS EKTACHROMES© NATIONALGEOGRAPHICSOCIETY Periscope "liberty" (opposite, lower), given at every opportunity, enabled crewmen to see such spectacles as Mount Agung, Bali (above), a dormant volcano towering above Lombok Strait, and the planes on a Guam airstrip. In the Indian Ocean they observed the masts of a wallowing tanker. While transiting Lombok Strait (below), between the islands of Bali and Lombok, Triton's depth gauges suddenly began to spin, and the ship involuntarily dived to 125 feet in 40 seconds. "It was as though we had hit a hole in the water-similar to air pockets encountered by planes," says Captain Beach. An abrupt change in water densities apparently caused the phenomenon at a point where currents from the strait met those from the Indian Ocean. Powerful engines quickly regained control. melody, different melodies. And you can tell when the turbine is happy, and when it doesn't care, and when it whines as if it were crying. "After a while I realize that the turbine sounds sad when I feel sad and happy when I feel happy. Does that mean that I have become, somehow, part of the machine? No! It is the slave and I am the taskmaster; I can make it purr and I can make it whine. This gives me a feeling of power, that the 160 pounds of me help to control all these tons. It's a good feeling...." No-smoking Test Tries Crew's Nerves The big events of this leg of the voyage were our sealed-ship test and the no-smoking period. For two weeks we did not ventilate the ship, but refreshed our atmosphere with our chemical candles when necessary. Later, smoking was prohibited. It was a trying time for many. I am not a smoker, except for an occasional cigar, and felt little difference beyond a cer tain heightened well-being-due, probably, to 608
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