In a 60-by-80-foot hangar in Hardeeville, Dan Taylor is putting the final touches on Nessa, a 44-foot submarine designed to go to the depths of Loch Ness, in Scotland, to search for the mythical beast, Nessie. Taylor, 64, who lives in a Bluffton apartment with his wife, Margaret, hopes the name he's given the submarine will bring him luck. In 1969 he took another sub, the Viperfish, to Loch Ness and came home empty-handed. He's planning another expedition this spring, one he hopes will provide clues to one of the world's most enduring mysteries. There are hundreds of theories on what Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, could be. The most popular contends it's a plesiosaurs, a dinosaur long-extinct elsewhere on earth. Taylor dismisses that notion: "Plesiosaurs are air-breathers, so if it was that, it would have to come up at least every couple hours," he said. "It couldn't be any kind of mammal like that because it would be spotted a whole lot more." He believes that Nessie is a giant eel. Whatever it is, if anything, it has captured the imagination and wallets of millions. The Scottish Tourist Board estimates that about $48 million is spent every year in and around Loch Ness. And every year, about 600,000 tourists visit the highland lake. Earlier in his life, Taylor served aboard Navy vessels, including a submarine. After being discharged in 1963, he studied aerospace engineering for 18 months at Georgia Tech before leaving the program. "I had no idea what I wanted to do," said Taylor, who added that "school is kind of dull" after life at sea.
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