Photographs by by Misha Gravenor

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Hawkes at Hawkes Ocean Technologies, Point Richmond, California; right, the Super Falcon

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BY MISHA GRAVENOR //////////////////////////// / /////////////////////////// LIKE MANY INVENTORS, GRAHAM HAWKES /RIDES THE LINE BETWEEN REVO- LUTIONARY AND CASH-STRAPPED DREAMER. BUT IF HIS NEW“FLYING” SUBMERSIBLE WORKS, HE MAY BE THE FIRST MAN TO GO 36,000 FEET BELOW THE OCEAN’S SURFACE ALONE. THAT’S DEEP. BY THAYER WALKER /////////////////////////////// THERE IS A STORY THAT ENGINEER GRAHAM round-rimmed spectacles. The ocean is the ///////////////////// “core of all life, and for some reason this deep HAWKES TELLS TO EXPLAIN WHY HE BEGAN space is the last we set about tackling.” BUILDING STRANGE WINGED SUBMARINES, AND To illustrate his vision of the future—and the vehicle that will take us there—Hawkes is IT TAKES PLACE, QUITE NATURALLY, IN A CLOUD rolling out the DeepFlight Super Falcon, OF MUCK ON THE SEAFLOOR. a machine he claims will “put marine science back on track.” On temporary exhibit down- In 1984, Hawkes engineered a submarine bottom of the harbor and the top of his pro- stairs, the sleek silver craft is fast, light, and called Deep Rover I. The one-person sub was fession, “I’ve been doing this all wrong.” relatively cheap—and looks as if it zoomed cutting-edge technology, and Hawkes, then out of an Isaac Asimov novel. 37, had already established himself as a A HUGE GULF SEPARATES the act of identi- Hawkes has built more than 60 subs since prominent ocean engineer. Deep Rover I’s fying a problem and actually solving it. The graduating in 1969 from London’s Borough giant, five-and-a-half-inch-thick acrylic verdict on Hawkes—a transformative vision- Polytechnic Institute, and standing at the dome provided its pilot with a galaxy of per- ary or simply a bombastic engineer?—is still podium, he takes the audience on a brief spective—nearly 360 degrees of horizontal pending. historical tour of his inventions. His first view—and its manipulator claws were robust Hawkeswearstheobscurecrownofworld’s winged submarine, the single-passenger enough to carry hundreds of pounds of rock most famous submariner. He co-holds the DeepFlight I, launched in 1995 with a maxi- yet delicate enough to cradle an egg. The sub record for the deepest solo dive in the world mum depth of 4,000 feet. In 2002, he built a looked like a giant fishbowl mounted in a (3,000 feet), played a submarine-driving two-person version, DeepFlight Aviator, skeleton of metal and had a maximum depth henchman in the 1981 James Bond film For to reach 1,500 feet, and in 2005 he began of 3,280 feet. To this day, Hawkes calls the Your Eyes Only, and made an appearance in DeepFlight Challenger, designed to take Fos- Deep Rover series “the most advanced con- the Dan Brown novel Deception Point as a sett to the ocean’s bottom. He sold his first ventional submarines” he has ever engi- “genius sub designer” whose plans were Super Falcon, a $1.5 million, 4,300-pound neered, though he lingers over the term stolen by a maniacal engineer. He’s since craft that can dive to 1,000 feet, to venture “conventional” with unguarded disdain. become the guy the world’s most prominent capitalist Tom Perkins in 2007,then promptly Deep Rover I was tested in Halifax, Nova businessmen and explorers call when they finished the one he was building for himself. Scotia, for a Canadian company called Can- want a submarine. Compared with the staggering depth Chal- Dive, and the sub made headlines in the quiet James Cameron used a Deep Rover model lenger was designed to withstand, 1,000 feet fishing port. For its public unveiling, a stage to film the 2005 Imax documentary Aliens of is shallow, but Hawkes insists that the Super was erected on the harbor, and a band played the Deep. Before Steve Fossett died in a 2007 Falcon is the more advanced machine. Chal- for local dignitaries. Flashing a streak of plane crash, Hawkes was building the lenger was built to dive deep and come back showmanship, Hawkes rose from the harbor multi-millionaire retired trader the first up; the Super Falcon was built to explore, and in Deep Rover I wearing a tuxedo. one-person submersible intended to dive to because it’s so light,it doesn’t demand an ex- But Hawkes, a charming Brit with a sharp the ocean’s deepest point, 36,201 feet, in the pensive, crew-intensive ship for transport. avian nose befitting his last name, had al- Mariana Trench. This February, he an- Hawkes takes exception to conventional ready put the sub through sea trials and nounced his newest star client, Richard scientific submarines—in particular Alvin, come away with an unsettling conclusion. Branson, who is launching Virgin Oceanic, whichisoperatedbytheWoodsHoleOceano- His vessel, like the scientific submarines that dominate deep-sea exploration to this day, took its propulsion cues from hot-air “I HAVE BUILT 60 SUBMERSIBLES THAT STOP AND balloons: It traveled vertically through the HOVER!”HAWKES CRIES ONE AFTERNOON AT HIS water column with ease—but moved along the horizontal plane with the haste of an ant WORKSHOP, REFERRING TO THE MACHINES HE crawling through Jell-O. DESIGNED BEFORE HIS WINGED SUBS.“I DON’T During one test, Hawkes had his epiph- any. After sinking 50 feet through Halifax ////////////////////////////////HAVE TO PROVE THAT TO ANYONE!” //////////////////////////////// Harbor, he met a plucky crab standing it////////////////////////////////s //////////////////////////////// ground. The crustacean waved its pincers aggressively. Hawkes looked at his subma- an ocean-tourism venture, with one of graphic Institution, responsible for some of rine’s giant manipulator claws, then back at Hawkes’s machines, and is also interested in the world’s most important scientific discov- the crab.“At that moment,” he recalls,“I re- taking up where Fossett left off. eries, and is one of just five submarines in the alized that Deep Rover was just a big crab. Now 62, Hawkes has spent the past year world that can dive below 14,000 feet. We were both scurrying around on the sur- trying to get the rest of the world to embrace Stripped down,these craft are simply spheri- face of the planet, and neither of us were ac- his vision of ocean exploration, a campaign cal titanium pressure hulls with portholes for tually able to get up and move in three /that began in earnest on a cool San Francisco windows, a design that/hasn’t evolved much dimensions.” evening this past spring, when Hawkes pre- since Alvin became the world’s first deep- That revelation has dominated his life for sented his case to a packed lecture hall at the diving sub, in 1964. more than a quarter century and is one that, California Academy of Sciences. “Alvin has a wonderful track record,” he hopes, will shake the very foundations of “We largely think Earth is explored, and Hawkes says,“but if I told you that I built one marine science, change the way the world we have the vehicles we need to master this machine 40 years ago but there is still only manages the oceans,and help steer humanity planet, [but] that’s only our terrestrial third,” one—that is an abject failure. It’s fat, dumb, off a dangerous and misguided course. Hawkes said, scanning the crowd of business and too expensive.” Alvin has a two-year “My God,” he said to himself, sitting at the moguls, scientists, and enthusiasts through scheduling process and costs $42,000 per

90 Outside they don’t collect samples. “I don’t agree with Hawkes’s philosophy at all,” says Phil Nuytten, CEO of the North Vancouver, B.C.–based undersea-technology firm Nuytco Research and a longtime friend and rival of Hawkes.“Stopping and hovering is 85 percent of what a submarine does. Gra- ham’s flying subs are wonderful but not for a full-scale research sub.” Nuytten has designed his own flying research sub, which is neutrally buoyant and can stop and hover. “Over the years, Graham has advanced the technology of these small transportable submarines more than anyone,” says oceanogra- pher Sylvia Earle, Hawkes’s ex-wife and former business partner. But Earle concedes: “As a scientist, I need to stop and look and work. The best experiences I have had have been sitting in one place.” Hawkes heard this criticism when he launched DeepFlight I, in 1995, and he still turns a shade of crimson when he hears it today.“Ihavebuilt60submersiblesthatstop andhover!”hecriesoneafternoonatHawkes Ocean Technologies, his Point Richmond,

The Super Falcon California, workshop, referring to the machines he designed before his winged subs.“I don’t have to prove that to anybody!” What he has proved is that he can build a submarine that’s lighter than most and therefore has the potential to dramatically cut the cost of marine science and exploration. HOT’s office windows reflect million-dollar yachts moored a stone’s throw away in San Francisco Bay,though inside,the scene is more grit than glamour. Hawkes’s global headquarters is a single room of bare concrete walls cluttered with motherboards, and getting from one side to the other re- quires tap-dancing around four submarines. There’snolobbyorreceptionist,andthecof- fee brews by the dog food for Allie, the com- day, an expense largely consumed by the DeepFlight I live under a dust jacket in his pany’s mutt mascot. 274-foot mother ship needed to transport its workshop? Why are Hawkes and his client Rather than subject himself to the red tape 36,000 pounds. Perkins the only people to actually own a that comes with government funds, Hawkes Hawkes laments the federal government’s Super Falcon? Why, for nearly two decades, has gotten the money for his winged subs $21 million allocation to Woods Hole to up- has the scientific community ignored Gra- largely on his own, through private sponsor- grade Alvin. “Woods Hole is focused on old, ham Hawkes’s marvelous flying submarines? ship or from his own pocket. Money he re- heavy iron consuming their budget, but we ceives from a weapons-systems company he need multiple inexpensive points of entry,”he “GRAHAM IS the lunatic fringe,” chuckles started in 1997 offers a steady income, and it says, driving a finger into the invisible chest Dave Gallo, Woods Hole’s director of special took him ten years to build his first winged of lumbering bureaucracy.He draws a parallel projects,in half jest.“He has built great vehi- sub, DeepFlight I. The project began after he to the computer revolution: A handful of cles that push the limit,but we have a vehicle sold his vintage Jaguar to buy the expensive giant, expensive, do-everything mainframes [in Alvin] that makes 200 scientific dives a acrylic dome, and it was completed only owned by a few institutions didn’t change the year. It’s not meant to be a great leap in sub- when he poured in more of his own money. world; cheap desktops in every home did. He marine design; it’s meant to be reliable, like a “We’re great at getting people excited, but has similarly grand plans for the Super Falcon taxi. If you want to build a machine that does we’re not great closers,” says Hawkes’s wife, and its descendants. everything, you end up with Alvin.” Karen, who runs the PR and daily operations At the end of the talk he opened the acade- Critics contend that Hawkes’s machines of the business. (Hawkes has been married my’s floor to questions. One line of inquiry are too specialized to provide widespread three times and has six children.) “Money went conspicuously overlooked. If Hawkes’s scientific value. Because they are positive- doesn’t motivate Graham; engineering machines are so transformative, if their light ly buoyant (a safety factor), they float to- does.”There’sjustoneproblemwiththat:It’s weight allows them to explore the ocean at a ward the surface when they aren’t moving hard to convince the world your sub is supe- fraction of the price of other subs, why does forward. They don’t stop or hover, and rior if you can’t find the continued on page 112

OUTSIDEONLINE.COM Outside 91 GRAHAM HAWKES continued from page 91 cash to build it. Over the past two decades, HOT has completed only three deep-diving winged subs. Thesonofapostman,Hawkesgrewupina working-class London neighborhood. To his family’s chagrin, he discovered his talents by taking apart household electronics.He stud- ied general engineering and,right out of uni- versity, hooked up with a company making underwater weapons units. “That was the first time I put a strategy together,” says Hawkes.“Mannedsubmarinesweresobadly designed that I thought I could do better.” Hawkes struck out on his own to develop an offshore-oil-rig diving suit called the Wasp, and in 1979 he used it for safety backup while Sylvia Earle made a world- record plunge to 1,250 feet in Hawaiian waters wearing another suit that Hawkes had worked on. The two started Deep Ocean Engineering near Berkeley in 1981 and wed five years later. With Earle’s environmental ethic and Hawkes’s engineering Hawkes with prowess, they hatched Ocean Everest, a the Super Falcon plan to build a fleet of lightweight winged subs that could explore the ocean’s great- est depths. “The oceans contain the whole future of the human race,” says Hawkes. “To misun- BLOOMS OF PHYTOPLANKTON TURN THE WATER derstand this planet as badly as we do is just INTO A CHUNKY GREEN MINESTRONE. AFTER plain dangerous.” He’s right. In 2009, NASA had a $17.6 bil- EXPERTLY WEAVING THE SUPER FALCON BY lion budget to explore other worlds, while JOYSTICK THROUGH A KELP STAND, HAWKES TURNS the federal budget for ocean exploration was COMMAND OVER TO ME. I PROMPTLY STALL THE about $750 million.Which is part of the reason Hawkes trailblazes ahead on his own. ////////////////////////////////SUBMARINE, WHICH FLOATS TO THE SURFACE. //////////////////////////////// While it took a chance encounter with a////////////////////////////////n //////////////////////////////// ornery crab to convince him that he had been doing everything wrong, an impromp- and a crane lowered them into the Pacific. HAWKES IS STILL testing the limits of his tu dance with a school of hammerheads The Super Falcon porpoised through the machine. He’s been holding “flight schools,” convinced him he was finally doing it right. water column, despite a two-knot current three-day,$15,000pilotcoursesforenthusi- When Hawkes turned the Super Falcon that would have stifled many subs. The men asts and potential buyers.In the process,he’s over to Tom Perkins, in fall 2007, the two circled Partida through a series of ecosys- managed to smash the Super Falcon’s nose put the machine through sea trials in Mexi- tems: Colorful clouds of reef fish filled the on a rock, chew up its propeller in flotsam, co. They sailed Perkins’s 289-foot Maltese /shallows; schools of jacks patrolled 30 feet and get it wrapped in kel/p to the point that a Falcon from San Francisco to Roca Partida, down; tuna prowled deeper. safety diver had to cut him out. I meet him at Mexico, a lump of basalt 450 miles offshore Hawkes pushed the nose down and cir- Breakwater Cove Marina, in Monterey, Cali- that rises from the Pacific like a guano- cled, at 200 feet, below and behind a gang of fornia, for a briefing. “We’re going to be frosted tuning fork. Bands of heavy swell hammerhead sharks. Above them, schools super-conservative and you’re going to be and a strong current rocked the massive of fish swam around the pinnacle in a slow slightlydisappointed,”hesays.“Toughluck.” yacht when it dropped anchor one mile privatesymphony.Thesharksseemedobliv- He’s wearing salt-crusted Ray-Bans and from Partida, and Hawkes was reluctant to ious to the sub. Hawkes recalls thinking, We a backward ball cap embroidered with the put his baby in the water. He had visited must be the first humans in all of history to word P I LOT, and he’s joined by marine Partida once before with his first winged be stalking sharks. ecologist Stosh Thompson, president of sub, DeepFlight I, but refused to dive it, due As Hawkes brought the sub up, one of Marine Environmental Research, in Hawaii. to treacherous conditions. the bigger sharks spotted them. Suddenly Thompson has long wanted to study the “Every other submarine I had ever been he was playing a game of chicken with a ecosystem between 135and 400 feet,a“twi- involved with would have been lethal to ten-foot hammerhead. Three feet from light zone”largely beyond the range of scuba take in the water,” Hawkes recalls. This the nose of the sub, the shark peeled off; divers, and had planned on buying a Super time around, Perkins wasn’t buying it. Hawkes arced back to the ship. “That Falcon before the economic collapse. “If we “You built this sub,” Perkins said, pointing was when everything fell into place,” says could have one of these,” he says, admiring at the rock, “to do that.” Hawkes. “Try doing that in a regular the Falcon, “we could write the book on Hawkes and Perkins’s son, Tor, jumped in, submarine.” twilight ecology and make better decisions

112 Outside when it comes to marine management.” Hawkes and I climb into our respective cockpits, and the acrylic domes close, seal- ing in one atmosphere of pressure. A Land Cruiser backs us into the arms of a safety diver, who clips us to a towrope attached to a Zodiac, which drags us to sea. Waves of water splash the dome, followed by those of A nausea in my throat, and suddenly I’m d v e locked in the world’s most expensive wash- n t u r ing machine. e s i After the support diver unclips us from n L i v

the Zodiac, Hawkes points the nose down i n g and spirals toward the bottom. We’re . 1 . buzzing through the ocean in an air bubble. 8 0

The ten-foot visibility is disappointing, but 0 . the ride isn’t. v i s i

“Keep this up for an hour and 40 minutes,” t . i Hawkes laughs, captaining an imaginary d dive to the deepest crevice of the planet, “and we’re at the bottom of the Mariana Trench!” Blooms of phytoplankton turn the water into a chunky green minestrone. When the visibility clears, 50 feet down, Hawkes banks the submarine over a metridium field,a patch of gelatinous white anemones that look like rows of cauliflower. After expertly weaving the Super Falcon by joystick through a kelp stand, he turns command over to me. I promptly stall the submarine, which floats to the surface. It’s a little frustrating, but under Hawkes’s command we glide back to the boat ramp. A sea lion torpedoes past us, offering a tanta- lizing hint of what it might be like to follow a pod of whales or dolphins. “Can you imagine?” Hawkes says. “That would be a religious experience.” A loud crunch interrupts the reverie as Hawkes clumsily drops the Super Falcon onto the submerged trailer. “Awww, shhhii …” he mutters.“Not the best landing.” On shore, Hawkes is reflective. He has Follow one great family on an amazing 10-day, ambitions to turn his company into the 2,200 mile, real-life adventure in Idaho. “Boeing of the sea,” and to that end he’s already designed a DeepFlight II line of commercial and scientific subs. DFII will have interchangeable pressure hulls to travel to various depths, customizable “work pack- We Respect Your Right To Privacy ages” (manipulator arms, cameras, etc.), At OUTSIDE, we have two important goals: to offer you the most inspiring active lifestyle magazine and the ability to stop and hover. Hawkes we can, and to protect the trust you've placed in us. estimates that the 10,000-pound subs— more than twice the Super Falcon’s weight— Occasionally we offer you various new services and products through the mail. Some come directly will cost $4 million to $6 million and be from OUTSIDE and some come from companies who we believe have products/services that you compatible with ships that charter for as might be interested in. little as $3,000 day. Still, the orders—for We carefully screen each offer before we allow it to be mailed to you. DFII or Super Falcon—aren’t exactly rolling Many OUTSIDE subscribers enjoy receiving these special offers. However, if you no longer wish to in, and his annoyance is palpable. receive them, please check the box below and return this coupon with your mailing label to: “I’ve spent a lot of time reading books on visionaries,” he explains as we sit on a jetty OUTSIDE Magazine, P.O. Box 7785, Red Oak, IA 51591-2785 overlooking Monterey Bay. “The consistent Please do not release my name to other mailers. thing about them is that they died poor and Please be sure to include your mailing label. Allow 6-8 weeks for your request to become effective. miserable, because they were ahead of their

OUTSIDEONLINE.COM Outside 113 GRAHAM HAWKES look cowed. “Everyone would understand time, and they couldn’t get over that nobody what we are talking about with winged subs, got it. I don’t want to follow that path.” and everyone would understand that we have the technology to master our planet. Our lit- FUNNY HOW A DEAL with Richard Branson tle company. Everybody.” can turn things around. Instead, the last great record on the planet It’s late January when I push through the remains unbroken. mirrored doubled doors of Hawkes Ocean Since Branson’s first forays with HOT will Technologies again, and the mood is decid- focus on shallow water, Hawkes is concen- edly more upbeat. trating his efforts on the Nymph. The three- Hawkes cut a deal with Branson in July person open-cockpit submersible is built to 2009, and now the team is getting ready to travel at scuba depths, is equipped with air put a new design, the DeepFlight Merlin tanks, and hits five knots. Clients who rent (which Branson has dubbed the Necker out the Nymph’s “taxi,” a 105-foot catamaran Nymph),in the water to test its buoyancy.The that goes for $88,000 per week, have the op- project, under wraps for months, was an- tion of dropping an additional $25,000 to use nouncedinlateJanuary.“Today,”Hawkesde- thesub.Bransoneventuallyplanstocommis- clares, “it becomes a submarine.” sion deeper-diving submarines and establish Branson has been so impressed with exploration bases around the world. “Quite a Hawkes’s subs that he’s considering creating lot of people who have bought tickets to go to an entire business around them. “Graham is space,” says Branson, referring to his Virgin a genius when it comes to building underwa- Galactic project,“have said they would like to ter vehicles,” Branson tells me by phone from explore the ocean.” Necker Island, his Caribbean resort. Bran- That’s good news for Hawkes, who recog- son’s new company, Virgin Oceanic, is de- nizes that he is much more of an inventor voted to marine exploration. “Fifteen miles than a businessman. “I’m not Bill Gates,” he from Necker, you’ve got the Puerto Rico says, standing in his workshop. “I was just Trench, the deepest point in the Atlantic. It trying to solve the technology. Now we need goes down to 28,000 feet, and nobody has a Henry Ford of the oceans to take it over.” any idea what’s going on down there.” Two engineers wheel the Nymph out the Branson also has his eye on Fossett’s goal of door to a three-ton crane, where it’s hoisted reaching the bottom of the ocean, though the intotheair.Withawidenose,stubbyten-foot Mariana Trench is a sore subject for Hawkes. wingspan,andataperedtail,thesublookslike With Fossett’s commission of the Challenger, the product of an amorous night between a Hawkes thought he had the chance to, if not whale shark and a stunt plane. The 1,650- go there himself, at least build a machine that pound craft spins like a drunken compass could. No one has touched bottom since needle. The next few minutes of buoyancy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard testing will determine how likely Hawkes will became the first, in 1960, spending 20 min- be to deliver the sub on schedule,in a month. utes at nearly 35,800 feet in a giant metal The sub hits the harbor and water gurgles cigar called a bathyscaphe. Because measur- in.A heavy quiet falls over the submariners as ing such depth is an imprecise science, it’s theNymphexhalesherlastbubblesofair.The unclear whether they went deeper or even nose tilts forward as if it’s about to sink—then whatthedeepestpoint(nowconsideredtobe rights itself and hovers steadily,one foot or so 36,201 feet) actually is. Regardless, no one beneath the surface. has gone down that far alone. “That’s about perfect!” Hawkes cries, fir- Derailed by Fossett’s death, Challenger ing off photos like a proud father. now sits in an empty space above Hawkes’s With this submarine complete, Hawkes is workshop. Though it was never tested at sea, moving on to his next project. Rather than Hawkes is convinced that the sub could han- design another winged sub, he’s focusing on dle it, given the way the hull responded at a unmanned vehicles. The same concepts pressure-test facility. He says Challenger is apply—“lighter” and “cheaper” anchor more than 90 percent done—a claim met Hawkes’s vernacular—and he calls them a with skepticism by some. “game changer” in the commercial and sci- “I think there’s a 98 percent [chance] that entific world. [it] comes back in one piece and the world Hawkes lifts the Nymph out of the water goesnuts,”saysHawkes.TheFossettFounda- with the crane and swings it back onto the tion is selling Challenger for $1 million, and dolly.With another problem solved,he walks Hawkes estimates that a new dome and final back to the workshop to tackle the one chal- testing would cost the same. lenge that continues to vex him: convincing “If Stevehadn’t diedand we’dgotten Chal- the rest of the world to follow his lead. o lenger finished, everything would have been different,” he’d told me in Monterey, hanging THAYER WALKER WROTE ABOUT WALKING his head. It was the only time I ever saw him WITH JAGUARS IN AUGUST 2009.

114 Outside