Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
"Flying Sub Rescue"
Page dedicated to Stephanie Kellerman in recognition
for all her help in providing many photos for this site.
Flying Sub model used in effects work
  The Flying Sub, in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, year four, saw the addition of a set of undersea grappling arms.  These were used on several episodes to fine effect, usually to retrieve snapped cables, as depicted in the following series of photos, taken principally from the episode "Cave of the Dead."  Snappy commentary provided by the creator of this website.

Where do you think you're going, Lee? I'm not going down in this thing alone! That's one bubblicious bell. Bell on the bottom.
Nelson prepares for dangerous descent in Seaview's diving bell, Apple One.

Bubbles trail from Apple One as  she dives to the dangerous depths of the sea.
Apple One rests on sea floor, her life giving cable to Seaview severed.  What to do?

Don't get lost now, son.

Weeee!

        More brilliant undewater miniature photography!
Flying Sub to the rescue, with
Sharkey at the controls.
   
Having found the disabled bell,
FS1's grapples deploy.
       

Its.....the claw! Oh boy! Now how do I get out of these extra-large Chinese finger puzzles? Get a grip!
With care and expertise, Sharkey retrieves
Apple One's snapped cable.  How could he
miss?  It was written that way in the script.

Reel 'em in. boys.  
Captain Crane sternly orders "Haul 'em up!"  Up they are hauled and out pops the Admiral as good as new.  We would have it no other way--after all, this was series television and there was always next week's episode.
   Nice going, Admiral. Irwin says just for that, you're out of the will.

Irwin Allen's series were not known for their character development nor technical detail.  It is interesting that some early ABC TV publicity materials refered to the Flying Sub as "a flying submarine named The Flying Fish."  And in the episode Jonah and the Whale, the diving bell was refered to as "Apple One"  Jonah was written by Shimon Wincelberg, one of Irwin's finest writers.  He often wrote pilot and key series episodes.  In a sense, Jonah was a pilot for the supposedly "new and improved color version" of Voyage.  Unfortunately, subsequent writers ignored this and other little bits of detail and consistency as they carried the series forth.

 Go to Flying Sub Berthing Page
 Go to Flying Sub Home Page
  Go to Flying Sub Photo Page
 Go to Bob Burns' FS1 Model
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