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By the time the third attempt was made to reach the sub—using a diving bell flown in from San Diego, Calif.—the men had been under water 26 hours. The bell also snagged in debris. One of the divers then tried to swim to the sub, but he could not make headway against the 2½-knot current. Hindered by debris and problems with its sonar gear, a little submersible called a Cubmarine had no better luck. Just as the situation seemed hopeless, the research ship A.B. Wood arrived, equipped with a remote-controlled underwater television camera. Using the camera to guide a grappling hook, the Wood managed to snare Sea-Link; a single tug freed the sub, which rose immediately to the surface.
It was a bittersweet success. Menzies and Meek emerged unharmed from their 31-hour ordeal in the forward compartment, where the atmosphere had remained at about sea-level pressure. But rescuers had to leave Link and Stover (whose motionless bodies could be seen through portholes) inside the aft compartment while it was slowly depressurized; if the men were still alive, suddenly opening the hatch at sea level would have caused a possibly fatal case of bends. When the hatch was opened, the fears were confirmed: both Link and Stover had died of carbon dioxide poisoning. Heartbroken by the loss, the elder Link nonetheless vowed to continue his oceanographic work. "We're not going to stop," he said. "This [tragedy] shows the magnitude of the problem and the challenge."
* Named after its donors, New Jersey Drug Magnate J. Seward Johnson and Designer Link.