Before a 146-foot long and 20-foot wide submarine stood Jules Verne, the famous French novelist. He studied this revolutionary model of military technology intently. He peered long at the steel hull, its propeller system, the long ram on the front end, and the rivets that held it all together.
The French submarine, known as Le Plongeur, was completed in 1863, the same year Verne published his first novel, “Five Weeks in a Balloon,” to international acclaim. Now, in 1867, he had found the inspiration for what would become his most famous novel, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”
By then, however, Le Plongeur had been decommissioned and was no longer a submarine, but a tank vessel. The submarine Verne viewed was a scale model on display at the Universal Exposition in Paris. This seven-month exposition was constructed on the grounds of the Palais du Champ-de-Mars. Across 172 acres were amusement parks, rides, restaurants, and scientific and industrial exhibits. Approximately 15 million people visited the exposition that celebrated the grandeur of the Industrial Revolution.
The Verne-esque Swiss Physicist
Switzerland, located along the borders of France, Italy, Austria, and Germany, pursued armed neutrality. Its defenses raised, but a declaration of war never issued. Within this small European country was a scientist who seemed to personify the spirit of Jules Verne. Auguste Piccard followed in the footsteps of his scholarly father, fittingly named Jules, who was a chemistry professor at the University of Basel. Piccard became a physicist after earning his degree in physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He taught physics at the University of Brussels in Belgium and focused his attention on cosmic rays. In order to study them up close, Piccard concluded he would need to reach the stratosphere.
From Balloon to Submarine
After 27 flights to the heavens, Piccard turned his attention to the seas. In 1937, the Swiss physicist and inventor began designing a submarine that could reach what at the time was impossible depths. With the outbreak of war in Europe again, his work was delayed. Switzerland again accomplished its stance of armed neutrality. When the war ended, Piccard returned to his submarine work, and this time with the help of the French government.
Re-Made in America
Don Walsh had entered the Navy in 1948 and would become one of the nation’s most accomplished 20th-century explorers. Walsh, a California native, served during the Korean and Vietnam wars. He was stationed aboard the submarines Rasher (SSR-269), Sea Fox (SS-402), Bugara (SS-331), and commanded the Bashaw (AGSS-241). Walsh was called upon to command the Trieste for a historic mission.
By the end of summer in 1958, the Trieste was transported to San Diego where the Piccards and the Office of Naval Research collaborated to refit the bathyscaphe in order for it to withstand the greatest pressure on earth: the Challenger Deep located in the Mariana Trench.
‘Cancel Diving. Come Home.’
In mid-January, the Trieste was escorted by the U.S. destroyer Lewis to the drop location. The weather had become less than amicable for the operation. Jacques Piccard, Walsh, and Andy Rechnitzer, the leader of Project Nekton, however, had come too far to back out now. With dark skies and 25-foot swells in the Pacific Ocean, Rechnitzer, aboard the Lewis, received word from the command center at Navy Electronics Laboratory (NEL) in San Diego: “Cancel Diving. Come Home.”
Rechnitzer ignored the order just long enough to allow the operation to begin. By the time he responded, he informed NEL, “Trieste now passing 20,000 feet.” It was during this week in history, on Jan. 23, 1960, that the French-inspired, Swiss-designed, Italian-built, and American-purchased and refabricated Trieste, with the younger Piccard at the controls and Walsh in charge of communications and logging, made its successful descent to the bottom of the Challenger Deep: 35,797 feet―a feat fit for a Jules Verne novel.
