PAIR TAKE FRIENDSHIP TO THE OCEAN DEPTHS MEN BOND OVER BUILDING THEIR OWN SUBMARINES.

Byline: JOSH GROSSBERG

Staff Writer

They were two boys from the heartland who fell in love with the ocean. Equal parts Huck Finn and Jules Verne, they went looking for adventure and found it in a submarine they built themselves.

Bob Meistrell remembers how he was just a boy in Missouri when he made a dive helmet consisting of a gas can, a garden hose, a spring and a marble.

And growing up in Montana, Don Siverts always felt drawn to the water. But it wasn't till he was older that he learned men in his Norwegian family had a long history of becoming sea captains.

They met in 1957 when Meistrell was struggling to make his Hermosa Beach dive shop a success. Siverts was a young artist who wandered into Dive N' Surf and asked if he could work on some advertisements.

Doubts erased

The two hit it off, and to their amazement they both had a fascination with airtight submersibles. They decided to go into business together. Siverts was the tinkerer, the one who would build the sub in his Torrance garage. Meistrell was the investor who got to take the sub down himself once it was finished.

If Siverts was unsure he wanted to build a submarine, his doubts were erased as soon as he rode in one.

"I took a ride in a friend's," he said. "I ordered a piece of pipe the next day."

That's where it all begins, with a piece of pipe large enough for a man to fit inside.

It took years for Siverts to build the first one, which was finally launched in 1969. They named it Snooper.

It held two people -- with one lying down -- and sank to depths as far as 1,000 feet where the only sound they could hear was the clack of crab legs touching the side of the sub's steel hull.

"It's so quiet," Meistrell said. "You don't take your problems with you."

Treasure trove 

They rented out their services to various cities, often inspecting sewage pipes, searching for fallen airplanes, filming for movie studios or looking for lost treasure. They once found millions in gold coins off the coast of Northern California, but their portion of the profits pretty much only covered operating costs.

They kept the Snooper in service until the early 1990s, when they launched their second sub. This one was also named Snooper. (Fact is, all of their submarines are named Snooper.) The new version was only a one-seater because the pair realized they got more work done when they were alone. Besides, they were constantly being asked by friends for a tour of the murky depths.

That's the sub they still use today. A third attempt ended badly when Snooper III was destroyed during a test dive. Sivert built it to dive to a depth of 2,500 feet, but at 2,450 feet, the pressure became too great and the sub was crushed like a grape. Nobody was inside at the time.

Years of work were wasted, but Sivert didn't let the failure hold him back.

"I bought a new piece of pipe and started again," he said.

Sense of danger

In fact, the only time the pair sensed they were in any danger was when they wandered into a sea cave near Catalina Island, but they were able to turn around and get out safely.

They figure the subs cost about $200,000 in parts and labor. When money comes in from jobs, they put it to the construction of the next sub.

There are only a handful of subs operating on the shores off California, a fact that comes as a surprise to Meistrell.

"I can't believe anybody doesn't want to do it," he said.

But he sees a day when he owns a fleet of subs that ferry tourists on visits to the watery underworld.

"People want to go into space, but who can afford it?" Meistrell said. "How many people ride in submarines? Very few."

On Saturday, as the pair were standing around the Snooper, which was stored on board Sivert's boat in Redondo Beach, two people on kayaks rowed by and asked how deep it goes.

"Five hundred feet," Meistrell said. "You think it's a long way down, but it's not. It's a long way up."

josh.grossberg(at)dailybreeze.com

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Photo:

Don Siverts inspects a porthole on a submarine he is building at his Torrance home. Siverts and his business partner, Bob Meistrel, have built four submarines over the last 25 years.

Steve McCrank/Staff Photographer