Seven Miles Down: The Story of The Bathyscaph Trieste.

PROJECT NEKTON, January 23rd, 1960.

From the deepest depths ever reached by man, Jacques Piccard and Lieut. Don Walsh flew into Washington to receive decorations from President Eisenhower, and to tell how it felt as the bathyscaph Trieste dropped seven miles down through the Pacific Ocean to the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

The Trieste passed through many thermal layers. When it came to the dense cold layers, it stopped. "We sat on them like going down steps," said Lieut. Walsh. The crew had to release some of the buoyant gasoline in its upper hull before it resumed its dark, downward voyage.

Only contact with the surface was a telephone that transmitted their voices in sonar waves to a listening device on the mother ship. Part way down, it conked out, and the Trieste men drifted on down, utterly isolated from outside contact. Probably the mother ship had drifted sideways and the sonar waves were not strong enough to penetrate at an angle. When the bathyscaph reached bottom, contact was re-established. From seven miles down, Walsh's voice reached the listeners, faint but clear.

At 30,000 ft. a sharp crack rang through the ship, shaking it violently. The water pressure outside wasmore than 6 tons per sqare inch., and even a slight fracture in the hull would have meant certain death. It proved to be only an outer Plexiglas windowpane which had splintered under the pressure. The inner hull remained watertight. "A pretty hairy, experience," admitted Walsh.

When the Trieste finally settled on the bottom, it raised clouds of fine white silt. Dr. Andreas B. Rechnitzer, the scientist in charge of the dive, identified the "dust" as diatomaceous ooze, the silica skeletons of small sea creatures, often used as scouring powder. In effect, the Trieste landed in a cloud of Bab-O.

Clearly visible when the dust settled was a white flatfish about one foot long. It seemed healthy and it had eyes, although the nearest trace of sunlight was more than seven miles overhead. Swimming six feet above the bottom were a shrimp and a jellyfish, neither of them bothered by the enormous pressure on their bodies. The very fact that these creatures were living and healthy proved that the water had oxygen in it. Therefore it must circulate, because if it were stagnant in the trench, its oxygen would long since have disappeared. One immediate conclusion: ocean trenches are not safe places for dumping radioactive wastes, since their water does not stay put.

The Trieste stayed on the bottom for 30 minutes, but Piccard and Walsh could use its powerful lights for only short periods because the heat they generate made the water around them boil violently. In later dives the Trieste will carry more instruments, take more pictures, and collect water and living creatures from the depths. Says Dr. Rechnitzer: "We'll go up and down like a Yo-yo."

In 1960, Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard (above in this photo) and Navy lieutenant Donald Walsh made history when they descended in the U.S. Navy bathyscaphe Trieste to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The brave divers were housed in a sphere attached to the bottom of the bathyscaphe's long buoyant tank.

Hoisted from the water by a floating crane, during testing by the Naval Electronics Laboratory in the San Diego, California, area. Trieste was being prepared for transportation to the Marianas Islands for a three-month series of deep-submergence operations. On 2 October 1959, she was loaded on the frieghter Santa Maria for the trip to the mid-Pacific.

Close-up view of the front of Trieste's pressure sphere, showing plexiglass window and instrument leads. The forward ballast silo, with metering valve on its bottom, is in the upper left. Photo was taken circa 1958-59, shortly after Trieste was obtained by the Navy.

Just before her record dive to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, 23 January 1960. The dive, to a depth of 35,800 feet in the Challenger Deep, off Guam, was made with Lieutenant Don Walsh, USN, and Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard on board. Waves were about five to six feet high when the two men boarded Trieste from the rubber raft seen at left. USS Lewis (DE-535) is steaming by in the background.

Jacques Piccard, and his assistants make final checks aboard her, prior to Trieste's first deep dive in the Marianas Trench. On 15 November 1959, off Guam, she dove to 18,600 feet, breaking the previous record of 13,000 feet. USS Wandank (ATA-204) is in the distance, apparently towing the bathyscaphe. Navigation bouy on right indicates that the photo may have been taken as Trieste left port to make the dive.

General arrangement drawing, showing the bathyscaphe's main features. Drawing was released in connection with Trieste's record dive to 35,800 feet in the Challenger Deep, off Guam, on 23 January 1960.