Stuck at the bottom of the sea!
Where were the hydrothermal vents that scientists had predicted they would find on the seafloor? Project FAMOUS continued searching during its second year of operation.

In the summer of 1975, Alvin dove with scientists Bill Bryan of Woods Hole and Jim Moore of the U.S. Geological Survey aboard. The pilot was Jack Donnelly.

The seafloor they drove over had many wide cracks, including a fissure that was wider than Alvin. They could not resist going into it. They proceeded slowly, at the pace of a leisurely walk, with Alvin casting its lights only a short distance into the darkness. They could not tell that the fissure walls were narrowing. Suddenly, Alvin was wedged in the crack.

Donnelly’s initial attempts to maneuver Alvin out of its tight spot failed. No one could come to the rescue.

“It was a really spooky feeling,” Bryan said in Victoria Kaharl’s book Water Baby: The Story of Alvin (Oxford University Press, 1990). “We would go up maybe half a meter and feel the sub bump against something. Jack tried everything up, forward, back, and we hit something each time, not knowing what it was. It was as if somebody put a big lid over us.”

But Bryan and Moore had taken careful notes of their movements as Alvin entered the crevasse, Kaharl reported. White particles flowing in the water gave them a clue about how Alvin probably drifted in the current. Donnelly essentially “retraced his steps” backwards to get out.

“We’re clear and underway again,” Donnelly announced from the depths. To the amazement of everyone on the ships, he did not rush to surface. Instead he continued the mission.

Alvin never tried to enter a fissure again, and Project FAMOUS never found a hydrothermal vent.

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