BATHYSCAPHE TRIESTE’S DEEP EXPLORERS

They were an exercise in contrasts: Lt. Don Walsh, a seasoned US Navy submariner, and Jacques Piccard, the son of Swiss genius Prof Auguste Piccard. Together they would dive to the deepest place on Earth aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste.

Both men had faith in the bathyscaphe’s design and what Piccard called ‘the eternal laws of physics.’ But they also knew that the crushing pressures of the Challenger Deep would test their machine to its limits. And they understood intuitively that facing the unknown meant facing unknown dangers.

Perspectives on the bathyscaphe Trieste’s Deep Dive vary, but it’s fair to say the journey to Challenger Deep was no walk in the park:

“In Retrospect, Lt Walsh and Jacques Piccard seem lucky to have survived their trip into Challenger Deep.” – Bob Ballard, The Eternal Darkness

“This was no lark, but a carefully controlled experimental diving program where risk was balanced off against our engineering and planning” -  Don Walsh