An intriguing anniversary is coming next week: 50 years since two men — U.S. Navy Captain Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer and engineer Jacques Piccard — made the deepest dive in history. On January 23, 1960, Walsh and Piccard, aboard the deep submersible Trieste (seen in photo with destroyer U.S.S. Lewis behind), dove more then 35,800 feet deep into the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of the earth’s ocean near Guam. The event will be commemorated by the Marine Technology Society (MTS) on the same day of the dive, Jan. 23, in San Diego. And MTS is publishing a special edition of the MTS Journal (Into the Trench: Celebrating the Golden Anniversary of Man’s Deepest Dive).
Here is an excerpt from that issue: “It was a rare fusion of basic physics, imaginative design and daring implementation. There would be this one chance only. More than a mile from the bottom, a tremendous ‘BANG’ shook the craft, and almost made them stop. The pilot considered, and they continued. They made it to the bottom. And back again. No one has ever gone as deep since.
“What was accomplished during the run-up to and conduct of the ‘Deep Dive’ had implications that touched academia, industries, the U.S. Navy and the economies of our country and the world, both then and today.”
For more info on the commemorative luncheon and the special issue visit the MTS website.
