Two Men’s Submarine Adventures
- Steve Reynolds
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
According to a post on the Port Adelaide, Rosewater, and Pennington (South Australia) Local History Facebook page, Kym Bonython and Mac Lawrie set out from Italy in a two-man, Italian-built submarine on 23rd September 1961. It could reach speeds of 6 knots on the surface and 4 knots underwater. They sat on the submarine, exposed to the water, wearing ‘aqualung’ gear for the long trip to South Australia.
The post came with this photo of Kym and Mac on the submarine: -
(The two top photos in the above picture show one of Mac Lawrie’s towvanes.)
Riding the two-man submarine at just 4 knots underwater, exposed to the water whilst wearing ‘aqualung’ gear for the long trip from Italy to South Australia appears to be an exaggeration of the facts.
(It seems, at best, that the submarine was only used in South Australian waters for short periods. What seems certain is that Bonython bought the Italian submarine in Los Angeles and had it delivered to him in South Australia.)
The post goes on to state that Kym Bonython was in the R.A.A.F. from 1940-1945 and, after the war, he ran a dairy farm at Mt. Pleasant. His Jersey cows won many championships at the Royal Adelaide Show. Kym later ran the Rowley Park speedway. He also raced stock cars at Rowley Park back in the late 1950s. Kym was on the South Australian Jubilee 150 Board, and he had his own art gallery called the Bonython Gallery. Mac Lawrie ran his own salvage company called Lawrie Commercial Diving Pty Ltd. Their services included underwater welding, salvage operations, depth surveys, and marine inspections. They did a lot of insurance investigation work on sunken vessels, amongst so many other things.
(Kym Bonython was also considered to be a “South Australian jazz legend” and he was inducted into the SA Music Hall of Fame over a decade after his death in 2011.)
A post on the SDFSA’s Facebook page (possibly posted by myself) showed Kym Bonython in his small midget submarine being testing at Outer Harbor 5 March 1961: -
Details on the Underwater Research Group of New South Wales website describe the submarine used by Bonython and Lawrie as “a 2-man chariot”, adding that there is a picture in Kim Bonython’s autobiography “Ladies Legs and Lemonade” (Rigby 1979) on page 121, taken in 1960,. “… in what looks very much like the same chariot. In the book Bonython describes buying the craft in Los Angeles in the late 1950s from Gustav Dalla Valle, an Italian who owned a business manufacturing and distributing underwater gear, with branches throughout America.
“The craft was manufactured at Livorno in Italy and delivered directly to Bonython in Adelaide. It is described as being 15 feet long, made of fiberglass and being powered by three 12v car batteries. ….. It appeared in the TV series ‘Skippy*” ….. In my recorded interview with Frank Davis in 1994, he said with no prompting from me that he thought the craft that Colin Trounce owned, originally belonged to Kim Bonython.”
* (The movie ’Skippy and the Intruders’ it seems.)
According to Dave Burchell’s chapter in “Let’s Go For a Dive” – 50 years of the Underwater Explorers Club of SA” edited by Peter Christopher and Nicholas Cundell, the submarine was used to monitor a scuba parachute jump by Dave – “We did two jumps, the first to find out if the jumper actually survived. and on the second we arranged for Kym Bonython to stay on the seabed in his submarine under the jump site ….”
So what did become of the old submarine? According to one person’s comments, the submarine could be seen at the back of Rowley Park speedway at some stage.
This photo from “One Foot in the Grave” by Dave Burchell features Kym Bonython with Dave Burchell and Jim Simpson: -
This photo showing Mac Lawrie and Dave Burchell in a towvane also features in “One Foot in the Grave” by Dave Burchell: -
Mac Lawrie’s second of many towvanes
The same photo features in “Let’s Go For a Dive” – 50 years of the Underwater Explorers Club of SA” edited by Peter Christopher and Nicholas Cundell. According to the caption in “One Foot in the Grave”, Kym and Mac were “Preparing a ‘dry’ towvane for a trial run in the Port River”.
According to Sue Lawrie, in the picture at the beginning, “The top 2 pics (shown below) are of Mac’s (my father) first towvane and your later pic (shown just above) is his second (of many). He invented, patented and built several versions of the towvane.
Mac Lawrie’s first towvane
“The bottom of the 3 pics is of Kym Bonython’s miniature open submarine. By pure coincidence, my son has been doing a lot of research just tonight on the towvane which was displayed at the 1965 New York World Fair; searching for the wreck of a 16th century Spanish Galleon of the coast of Miami and locating vessels in the Mediterranean off the coast of Bodrum, Turkey. Not bad for a bloke from the Port (Port Adelaide)!”
Kym Bonython’s miniature open submarine
Sue Lawrie later added, “The original towvane is part of the (SA) Maritime Museum’s collection. I believe they often display it around the October long weekend as part of the heritage transport display. There was a version in the USA nicknamed “Schmoo” which I have seen pictures of, and my son is currently trying to ascertain if the one displayed at the 1965 New York World Fair (see below) is still in existence.”
A towvane on display at the 1965 New York World Fair
An ABC Adelaide’s Facebook post suggested that Adelaide had its own yellow submarine before The Beatles sang about one, but they were referring to Mac Lawrie’s towvane. There is a recording at https://ab.co/3GRocwW . The then director of the SA Maritime Museum, Paul Rees, told ABC Radio Adelaide that “Adelaide's own yellow submarine was made in Port Adelaide by Mac Lawrie. This is a one-person submarine. This is from a local man named ‘Mac’. He made his own submarine in Port Adelaide around the 1950’s, it’s called a Towvan(e), and it’s dragged along by a ship on the surface. It’s an observation submarine ultimately.”
Several photos of the towvane featured in the ABC Adelaide’s Facebook post, including this one: -
Further, “Mac Lawrie was a major employer of shipwrights, divers and tradesmen with his own slipway in the Port of Adelaide - he was also the “go to” dive company for SAPOL for body recovery, etc.. including in sinkholes in the SE way before the SA Government funded a SAPOL dive team (who he instructed). Mac also constructed the replica landing boats seen in the film Gallipoli and was one of the first to experiment with deep sea diving "bells". A true SA pioneer who I can, in my younger years with honour, call a client, mentor and friend along with his son Jock Lawrie. A bigger than life true Port boy!”
Sue Lawrie also sent in this cartoon from “The News”, Adelaide’s one time afternoon newspaper: -
Historian Jeff Maynard describes the submarine as a “COSMOS wet sub”, adding, “These were Italian wet subs and …. A couple came to Australia that we know of. One has only the shell left and is in Queensland. Allan Kessler has restored the other and it is in NSW. A couple of the guys have done thorough studies of which one was used in the movie ’Skippy and the Intruders’ and which was used in the tv series, Great Barrier Reef.”
Incidentally, this report about Kym Bonython featured in “The Argus” for Sat 29th Dec 1956 (on Trove at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71773599): -
“Speedboat broke up at 70 m.p.h.
Well-known South Australian speedboat driver Kym Bonython fractured his leg at Snowden's Beach today when his hydroplane Bullo Bee Three disintegrated at 70 m.p.h. Bonython was flung into the water as the speedboat flew apart and was later admitted to hospital. He was defending his Australian speedboat title against Sydney woman driver Grace Walker. His condition tonight was satisfactory.”
(My thanks go to Sue Lawrie, Jeff Maynard, the URG of NSW and everyone who posted and commented on the Port Adelaide, Rosewater, and Pennington (South Australia) Local History Facebook page )
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