Troy (submarine)

Troy was a submarine designed by oceanographer Fabien Cousteau and engineer Eddie Paul to look like a great white shark.

Troy was a 14-foot-long (4.3 m), 1,200-pound (540 kg) submarine designed to look like a great white shark. It was created by oceanographer Fabien Cousteau and engineer Eddie Paul's E.P. Industries so that Cousteau could observe and film sharks in their natural habitat without chumming the water. The submarine had space for one person, Cousteau, who piloted the vehicle while lying on his stomach, propped up on his elbows. A wet sub, Troy was filled with water while operating. To breathe, Cousteau carried full diving gear weighing about 80 pounds (36 kg), providing about 6.5 hours of air. To prevent air bubbles leaving the vessel, spent air was redirected into two empty tanks. Cousteau entered Troy by flipping open the "head" and crawling in backwards.

Troy was covered in SkinFlex fabric combined with glass and sand to make it look and feel like shark skin. The "skin" was sewn together on the top and held together with Velcro on the bottom. Under that was a layer of bullet-proof Lexan and 2-inch-thick (5.1 cm) steel "ribs" to allow the submarine to survive a shark attack. The spine was made out of flexible plastic. Scars and epoxy teeth were added for realism.

Troy was designed to move in a shark-like manner using a series of joysticks to control speed, direction, and pitch. The eyes could roll, the gills puffed, and the mouth opened and closed to enable shark-like communication. Its tail functioned as a rudder and was powered by compressed air. A propulsion system designed by the United States Navy kept noise to a minimum. The submarine could move forward at up to 5 knots, but was unable to react quickly. Depth was controlled by three inflatable buoyancy bags. Unlike real sharks, Troy was odorless.

Troy had three cameras to film its surroundings. Originally, cameras were positioned in the shark's eyes but the resulting images were too "disconcerting to try to make sense of" in real time, so the camera was moved to the top of the shark's head, disguised as a fish. An infrared camera was hidden in a suckerfish attached to the shark's body. The pilot had a video monitor showing him what was going on outside the shark.

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