It might have been a 'new' company but Ulverston hi-tech firm Hyspec Systems Limited aimed to stay at the forefront of underwater technology, reported The Mail in March 1993.

Formerly Ulvertech MSI, the new company was the result of a management buy-out in February that year with the backing of Furness Enterprise and Barclays Bank.

Managing director Bob Bruce, operations manager Gordon Fletcher and sales and marketing director Steve Milward were confident about future success.

Over the past 14 years the company had gained a worldwide reputation thanks to the skills and expertise developed at the North Lonsdale Road plant.

Those skills saw the company play a vital role in the quest to find the Titanic in the 1980s by providing sonar equipment.

The company had already beaten off international competition to win a US military sonar contract with its in-house technology the first design contract awarded by the American defence department to a foreign country.

Most of company's work involved underwater technology and orders included a contract to provide sensor equipment for the Swedish navy, which the company also hoped to develop for use on underground trains in case of breakdown.

It had also developed a unique hand-held driver's sonar ranging unit which could indicate underwater distances. Interest had been shown in this product for use by fire fighters in smoke-filled rooms.

In the future the company hoped to diversify into on-shore markets rather than concentrating solely on underwater technology.

And on the day the Hyspec Systems was officially launched the new company showed its determination by signing contracts with British Nuclear Fuels for a robotic arm for the nuclear industry.

In January 1994, Hyspec was celebrating the continued sales of its 'profiling' sonar.

The system was used primarily by the offshore oil and gas industry for checking undersea pipes and cables, but it could also be adapted to suit many other applications including checking silt levels at the BNFL Thorp reprocessing plant at Sellafield.

Hyspec had taken on five people over the past year, taking its workforce to 25.