Bringing back the Ben Franklin
Local man wants to see pioneering sub returned to place where it set sail.
Two days before Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy in 1969, another historic NASA mission of discovery was happening almost unnoticed 153 miles south in Palm Beach County.
The Ben Franklin, a research submarine — yes, a yellow (and white) submarine — launched July 14, 1969, from the Port of Palm Beach on a 30-day mission to explore the Gulf Stream, for what NASA oceanographer Gene Feldman said was “the most ambitious undersea expedition ever done. It was amazing.”
The “space shuttle below the water,” as he called it, drifted undersea along the continental shelf for 30 days as its crew was tested with sustaining its environment in dangerous conditions while recording research, Feldman said this week.
On Aug. 22, 1968, The Palm Beach Post covered the christening of the 50-foot, 130-ton submarine, where Louisa J. Castle, a direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin, smashed a bottle containing water from the seven seas across the bow of the submarine.
Almost a year later, the July 15, 1969 Post reported the previous day’s launch: “The Ben Franklin descended 1,800 feet into the Atlantic Ocean at 8:55 p.m. Monday, beginning its long-planned underwater drift with the Gulf Stream.”
The captain for the crew of six was North Palm Beach resident Don Kazimir, then a 34-yearold former U.S. Navy submarine officer, and his main job was to keep the Ben Franklin running smoothly.
NASA studied how the men interacted and used the information for its future Skylab project.
Also known as the Grumman/ Piccard PX-15, the Ben Franklin remains the only submarine to complete that particular mission along the Gulf Stream and is one of the few research submarines to have been underwater for such a long time.
Kazimir, now 83, still lives in North Palm Beach and vividly remembers the cold, dark times at the bottom of the ocean. “It was tense because at any moment, you could get in a wreck,” he said.
To lift their spirits, the crew listened to songs including “On the Road Again” from Kazimir’s tape deck. In addition, after mission leader and main scientist, Jacques Piccard, went to bed, Kazimir said he often would bring out mini liquor bottles to help his teammates relax.
Times at sea weren’t always intense, though. One of Kazimir’s most memorable moments was looking out one of the portholes at night as music from “Madame Butterfly” played and the submarine’s lights beckoned the fish to come closer.
The Ben Franklin surfaced after 30 days just south of Nova Scotia on Aug. 13, 1969. From there, it sailed to New York City for the South Street Summer Festival, where it was on display from Aug. 26 until Sept. 2, 1969.
Feldman was a high schooler when he first saw the Ben Franklin at the South Street Summer Festival and the sight of the sub and her crew members reinforced his desire to become an oceanographer.
“I went over to see it with my
dad and there were these guys in white jumpsuits. I thought, ‘Wow. Here is some- thing that I could do with my interest with the ocean,’ ” Feldman said.
The submarine went on to other East Coast cities and returned to the Port of Palm Beach on Sept. 27, 1969.
Grumman Aerospace, the vessel’s owner, tried to sell it for commercial use, but had no luck. So, Grumman took the Ben Franklin to the Bahamas to have it photographed, but it was dam- aged after winds and rough waves pushed it on top of a coral reef.
It was taken back to Riviera Beach for repairs and then sold to Canadian busi- nessman John Horton in 1971 for $65,000, though it was valued at $25 million.
Horton didn’t use the submarine and it sat in a ship yard for more than 20 years until it was donated to the Vancouver Maritime Museum, on the other end of Canada, where it still sits.
Feldman is working with Kazimir to bring the vessel home to Palm Beach County, and hopes to get NASA, the Navy and others to back his ambitious plan.
“There is no more appropriate place for it than in Palm Beach,” Feldman said. “I want it to come home so it can inspire the new generations of explorers.”
But bringing the Ben Franklin back to Florida is proving a challenge. Feldman and Kazimir have brainstormed different locations, such as President John F. Kennedy’s Bun- ker on Peanut Island and the Manatee Lagoon complex at Florida Power & Light Co.’s power plant in Riviera Beach. But, Feldman said, “we need a place that wants it.”
Aidy Alonzo, public rela- tions and media specialist from the Port of Palm Beach, which owns the bunker, said “nothing has been brought to the attention of our commissioners or operations staff ” about the Ben Franklin being moved to Peanut Island.
Alonzo couldn’t speak on whether the submarine would be a suitable exhibit, but she said the idea would have to be presented to a task force of Port and County stakeholders, currently in the process of being formed, then put to a vote by the Port’s board of commissioners.
About the Manatee Lagoon option, FPL spokesman Rich- ard Gibbs said there were “initial discussions about the submarine, but nothing was agreed upon.”
He also said “it’s really hard to say” if FPL would be interested in displaying the Ben Franklin.
“I would really like to see it back here where it all started. I am going to retire soon and I would like to have this as a project I can work on,” said Kazimir, who works with Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Palm Beach. “I want to be able to show my grandkids and kids the submarine and tell them about my time drifting in the Gulf Stream.”
So, if the Franklin’s journey was the oceanographic equivalent to Apollo 11’s space mission, why was it overlooked?
Feldman puts part of the blame on Walter Cronkite, who was telling Americans to “look up.”
“People were looking up at the sky and not down into the water,” Feldman said. “It was bad timing.”
Cronkite later said in a Discovery Channel docu- mentary, “I never heard a word about (the Franklin). We would have wanted a camera down there and communication. We would’ve wanted to tie the guys on the moon to the guys underneath.”