Of Atlantis Submarine

   Dennis Hurd was working for the International Hydrodynamics organization when he developed an idea of recreational submarines. While taking executives of drilling companies under the North Sea to inspect oil rigs and seeing their fascination with the underwater world, Hurd got serious with the idea of building his own passenger submarines that could take people underwater to explore the beauties of the sea. The idea was to design a submersible vehicle that would have a capability of taking several people on board at the same time and going underwater for at least hundred feet for an hour or less. At the same time this vehicle must have a comfortable seating area and large windows through which passengers can enjoy underwater marine life.
   The first battery-powered passenger-submarine designed by Hurd was called Atlantis I, which was send to its first voyage at Cayman Islands on December 1985. The success of that first trip was immense and Hurd continued to build his submarine empire through passion, fundraising, innovation, and design.
   In February 1986, Atlantis II was built and featured in the World Expo at Vancouver, Canada. It had been technically improved and had become sophisticated enough to sail a great distance to Barbados from Canada. The Atlantis II designs and improvements inspired Hurd to build the third Atlantis, a submarine that could seat forty eight people at the same time. Atlantis III had a great success at U.S. Virgin Islands and was quickly certified by the U.S. Coast Guard. In addition to building the submarines, Hurd founded a Living Classroom program, where kids could learn all about the marine life while riding on the submarine under the surface of the ocean. The constant innovation and inspiration made Hurd a head of the international company with over four hundred and fifty employees and a fleet of eleven high-tech submarines, majority of which stationed at Hawaii. In 2009, more than one million visitors took tours on Atlantis submarines, for example, and this fact speaks for the popularity of this unique underwater experience.