Museum News
Jan 27/08
Chart Attack!

Jan 01/08
Spirit of Canada Ocean Challenge - February 5
NewtSuit
Ship Name: NewtSuit

Vital Statistics:
Length: 162 – 193 cm (5’4” – 6’4”)
Beam: 76 cm (30”)
Weight: 275 kg in air, neutral in water
Hull: aluminum
Operational depth: 305 m (1000’)
Collapse depth
Power: an umbilical cord connected to a ship provides power; batteries provide 5 hours of emergency power
Life support: 40 hours – closed circuit rebreather
Built: North Vancouver, 1984


NewtSuit is an atmosphere diving system (ADS – this includes all submarines and submersibles which have an internal environment at the same pressure as found at sea level - 1 atmosphere) in which the pilot can work safely and comfortably in deep water (maximum depth 305 m). The suit was designed and originally built by the North Vancouver designer Phil Nuytten.

What was the significance of Newtsuit?
  • Rotary joints in the arms and legs give the pilot a greater range of mobility
  • The lightweight suit can be fitted with a thruster pack for working in mid water
  • Used to recover the bell of the Edmond Fitzgerald
  • This type of suit replaces dangerous and time-consuming saturation diving.

What type of work is done in the NewtSuit?
With the thruster packs and the manipulator jaws on the ‘hands’ a pilot in a NewtSuit can do just about anything a diver could do. NewtSuits have been used for work on ocean drill rigs, pipeline inspection, salvage work, photographic and video survey and much more.

What is like to dive in NewtSuit?
“Piloting the NewtSuit is like being in a suit of armour, but the immense pressure of the sea water is kept out by special joints and seals in the suit. You can move your arms and legs, you can pick up things from the bottom, you can handle tools. And because there’s a thruster pack on the back, you can fly around underwater like a hummingbird. A typical dive is about six hours long. The suit is very close to your body so if you feel claustrophobic, this isn’t the job for you! The best thing about a one-atmosphere diving suit is that you don’t have to decompress like a hardhat diver. When your work is done, you can just come back up to the surface, open the hatch and walk right out.” Steve Fuzessery, NewtSuit pilot.


What is saturation diving?
When a SCUBA diver spends time deep underwater, nitrogen (from the air the diver breaths) dissolves into their blood. If the diver surfaces too quickly (moving from an area of high pressure to a lower pressure at the surface) this nitrogen will ‘fizz’ out of the blood, similar to opening up a bottle of pop quickly. If the diver rises too quickly they can get the “bends” (or decompression sickness) which can be life threatening. In saturation diving the diver remains at depth until no more gas can dissolve into their bodies (about 24 hours). They can spend an extended time – days and weeks – working underwater and living in an underwater habitat. When the diver needs to return to the surface they must come up very slowly (over a period of days, usually in a hyperbaric chamber in which the pressure the divers are subjected to is slowly decreased) to let the dissolved gasses come out of their system. With systems such as the NewtSuit divers do not need to do any saturation diving because they stay in a one-atmosphere environment inside the suit.


Why is Vancouver considered a centre for the development of underwater technology?
A number of companies around Vancouver are involved in developing different kids of underwater technology. These companies include Phil Nuytten’s Nuytco Research which develops one person submersibles, and International Submarine Engineering Ltd, a world leader in the design and development of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs).


For more information:
Illustrated NewtSuit - http://www.nwrain.net/~newtsuit/technology/newtsuit/ns_main.htm
Nuytco Research - www.nuytco.com

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Did you know?
That Captain George Vancouver was an experienced, sailor, explorer, navigator and cartographer who mapped the coastline of British Columbia in 1792. In several voyages between 1791 and 1795, Captain Vancouver charted for the first time the rugged coastline of what is today Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. So thorough were his charts, that mariners used them for well over a hundred years. One of the world’s great mariners, George Vancouver was born in King’s Lynn, UK on June 22, 1757. Although the British Navy Captain’s life ended in obscurity when he died in 1798, the city that bears his name will recognize his remarkable achievements.
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