Abstract: A method and apparatus for harvesting the ocean floor is disclosed. A sled connected to a vessel is towed over the ocean floor. The sled is supported by spaced apart runners that mount an upwardly open container in which particles to be harvested are collected as the sled is drawn forwardly by the vessel. A cable extends from the vessel to the container and is driven in a forward direction. Buckets are mounted to the cable and have a forwardly directed open end. The cable is guided so that the buckets are moved through the container of the sled to thereby pick up the particles and convey them to the vessel. The sled includes means for dislodging the particles to be harvested from the ocean floor, and for separating from the particles silt and other undesirable contaminants of a size smaller than the particles.

Abstract: An elevator apparatus for emptying a towed deep-sea particle harvesting sled is disclosed. The sled is towed over the bottom surface of a deep-sea ocean bed by a strip. The strip is connected at its lower end to the sled, at its upper end to the vessel, and is under tension between the sled and the vessel as the sled is towed over the ocean floor. The strip includes a first railway for passing downwardly sequentially conveyed buckets on an endless belt from the surface vessel to the sled, and a second railway for passing upwardly sequentially conveyed buckets from the sled to the vessel. At the sled, the buckets are reversed on a wheel. The buckets pass through an area wherein collected particles are accumulated with the result that the buckets capture the particles and elevate them along the strip to the surface. At the surface on the vessel a similar wheel reverses the path of the conveyed buckets, as well as emptying the buckets into a surface collection area which is preferably on the vessel.

Abstract: An apparatus and process for harvesting deep-sea particles, such as nodules, from a substantially planar deep-sea bottom is disclosed. A vessel on the surface tows a heavier than water sled along the ocean bottom. Towing occurs through a single towing strip connected to the sled at the lower end, connected to the vessel at the upper end, and extending angularly downward from the vessel to the sled. The towing strip includes an integral elevator mechanism comprising in the preferred embodiment a series of buckets having perforated sides conveyed by and on an endless belt traveling on the towing strip. The series of buckets on the endless belt empties a concentrator collector having the accumulated and harvested particles in the towed sled. The buckets ride upwardly from the sled to the surface vessel on a first track on the towed strip. The bucket contents are then emptied at the surface typically within the vessel, and thereafter are reconveyed to the sled on a second and separate track on the towing strip.