It was very hot the summer of 1960. I lived in House 1-G in Ras Tanuara, and across the street the was a walkway which led to the school. On the left, two blocks was the beach and ergo a story of piracy and daunting do's.
Ross Tyler, and Dick Burgess were my best friends in RT, other than April Harlen and Susan Maloney, from whence I learned spin the Bebsi bottle..However, I digress from the story.(Later perhaps.)
Ross and I and Dick Had been told by somke crazed Aramco adult that right "out there" was a sunken ship, pointing to the whole Persian Gulf,(Yes, youngling's , that's what we called it.)
So we began the plot of building the first submarine so we could go look for this ship. Now we could all swim like fish, Captain Ed having thrown us into the sea at High tide and walked away saying, " swim or drown ". Swim we did.
We found a pile of eight foot long boards and found three old fifty five gallon trash can and started out by getting about twenty gas cans, (Metal Jerry Cans) that we found just laying around, although some seemed attached to big things called trucks.
So, putting the barrels in a row and the laying the boards on them, tying the boards in place with rope we soon had an somewhat cylindrical shaped object, eight feet long. A fifty five gallon drum at each end and one in the middle that we had cut, or hacked out the bottom. Looked very similar to a large bamboo tree lying on the ground. We had hacked out a place in each can and put a diving mask in the holes, for vison ports and a hatch in the top of this thing.
We then tied the jerry cans, now empty( so much for ecology back then )and were using them for flotation devices, with the plan to have one of us out side to open them and let us down a little at a time.. No one though about getting back up...Minor mistake. Now to water proof the whole thing we need to caulk everything. We had this thing on two wagons and so could pull it around and of course Aramco, always wanting to help us young people, had left a tar box going and had gone to prayer call or something...So we used the ladle and poured hot tar over this whole thing, being very careful to pour it in every crack and along every seem. Sealed up the diving masks, and chewed Tar "tobaccy" while we worked..Supposed to be real good to clean your teeth...
Finally we were ready..and off to the beach we went. We got stuck constantly in the sand, and I'm sure little boys weren't supposed to use, much less know such language, but we finally did it and got into the water.
Would you believe it, it floated....So in we climbed and Ross started letting the water into the jerry cans...well, tar doesn't hold well and soon emergency klaxons were going, bells ringing and crash dive was the word for the day...
We went straight to the bottom and fast. Both Dick and I were amazed that it had worked, until we realized we were underwater and filing up fast. One other little fact had slipped our minds, what air ?
So, we managed to get the hatch open, Ross outside diving down and pulling and us pushing. We got out and fortunately we were only about thirty feet from shore...another twenty feet and we would have been at the drop off and most likely would still be there.
Now here we are , on the beach, and covered in tar...do you remember how parents took great delight when you messed up and they had the pleasure of making it worse by "helping you".
Well, going to school the next day, Bald and red from the scrubbing to get the tar off, no eye lashes or even my pride and joy, one chest hair remained..
To say the least...we paid a hearty price..I do believe that that sub is still out there somewhere and that fish die daily from laughter at our efforts.
Lesson for the day....POOL time !!!