Caribe Tide

Delta Exploration Incorporated
Jackson, Mississippi, USA

Bosphoros & Black Sea - 1969

Seismic source: Propane-Oxygen Sleeve Exploders

Data acquisition system: Texas Instruments DFS-III

Navigation system: Shoran (VHF-UHF radio-nav)

Caribe Tide docked at Sali Pazar, Istanbul, Turkey (Note Turkish and USA flags).

Caribe Tide docked at Sali Pazar, Istanbul - The base for the Black Sea operation.

Note the very tall Shoran antenna mast mounted on top of the fibreglass Instrument Room.

Similar masts were mounted at the Shoran shore stations to provide precise line-of-sight navigation.

Instrument room with Texas Instruments DFS-III seismic recording system.

Photo scanned from a coloured 35mm slide of the Instrument Room

Observer Lester Furr & Junior Observer (JO) Chris during the shooting of a line in the Black Sea.

Manning the Proton Magnetometer hydraulic cable drum

The Shoran radio navigation system.

This worked by producing high-power radio pulses which were transmitted to & returned by the shore stations.
This permitted position-location by triangulation from the radio-wave propagation time measurements.
Note the all-vaccum tube electronics and the massive power supply units.
These were old ex-military units from the Vietnam war era.

SHORAN is an acronym for SHOrt RAnge Navigation, an electronic navigation and bombing system
developed for military aircraft in 1942 and first deployed in 1944. It operates at 300 MHz,
requires a mobile AN/APN3 set and two stationary AN/CPN2 or 2A ground stations.
Shoran had a maximum range of 300 statute miles.

The Shoran operators were very experienced at operating the system under difficult conditions
and repairing the prone-to-failure electronics. They carried a lot of spare parts.

Two (starboard-side ) sleeve exploders can be seen secured in their harnesses.
The pipes to supply Propane & the Oxygen, a tube to remove the combusted gases
(to prevent secondary noise from oscillating bubbles) and the control & sensor wires
can be seen entering the end of each unit.

The Bosphoros

The Bosphoros

Centre: Burt Ledenham,   Right: Lester Furr

Passenger Ferry on the Bospheros

Approaching a pier at Istanbul (a chance for some shore leave and R&R)

Lester Furr & Burt Ledenham (with myself taking photo) at the Hilton bar, Istanbul

(Photos - Robert J. Horne)