Bathyscaphe Trieste
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Image:Bathyscaphe Trieste.jpg Image:Bathyscaphe Trieste Closeup.jpg Image:Trieste2.JPG
Trieste was a deep-diving research bathyscaphe ("deep boat") with a crew of two people. Designed by the Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard, it was launched in August 1953 in the Mediterranean near Naples, Italy. It was purchased by the U.S. Navy in 1958 for $250,000.00.
The Trieste basically consisted of a chamber filled with gasoline for buoyancy and a separate pressure sphere. This sphere (dubbed a "bathysphere" by Piccard) provided just enough room for two persons and was built by the Krupp Steel Works of Essen, Germany. To withstand the staggering pressure of 9 tons per square inch (124 MPa) at the bottom of Challenger Deep, the sphere's walls were 5 inches (127 mm) thick. It weighed 13 tons in air, 8 in water.
Transported to the Naval Electronics Laboratory's facility in San Diego, it was extensively modified and then used in a series of deep-submergence tests in the Pacific Ocean during the next few years, including a dive to the Mariana Trench, the deepest known part of the ocean, in January 1960.
Trieste departed San Diego on October 5, 1959 on the way to Guam by the freighter Santa Maria to participate in Project Nekton - a series of very deep dives in the Mariana Trench.
On January 23, 1960, it reached the ocean floor in the Challenger Deep, carrying Jacques Piccard (son of Auguste) and Lieutenant Don Walsh, USN. This was the first time a vessel, manned or unmanned, had reached the deepest point in the sea. The onboard systems indicated a depth of 37,800 ft (11,521 m), although this was later revised to 35,813 ft (10,916 m), and more accurate measurements made in 1995 have found the Challenger Deep to be slightly shallower, at 35,798 ft (10,911 m). The descent took almost five hours and the two men spent barely twenty minutes on the ocean floor before undertaking the 3 hour 15 minute ascent. They observed small soles and flounders and noted that the floor consisted of "diatomaceous ooze".
In April 1963, Trieste was modified and used in the Atlantic Ocean to search for the missing submarine USS Thresher (SSN-593). In August 1963, Trieste found the wreck off New England, 8,400 feet (2.56 km) below the surface. The bathyscaphe was then retired and some of her components were used in the Trieste II.
In appearance at the time of Project Nekton, Trieste was over 50 feet (15 m) long, but the great extent of this was a series of floats filled with 22,500 US gallons (85 m3) of gasoline to provide buoyancy, and air tanks at either end of the vessel. The crew were in a 6 ft (2 m) diameter steel sphere attached to the underside of the floats. An additional nine tons of pellet shot were taken on the craft to speed the descent. This additional weight was held in place by electromagnets, so that in case of an electric failure the craft would immediately start to rise to the surface.
The Trieste class bathyscaphes were replaced by the Alvin class submersibles, best exemplified by DSV Alvin itself. Though the newer design could not dive as deep (a maximum of 20,000 feet for DSV Sea Cliff), they were generally more capable and more durable.
Trieste is now a permanent exhibit at the U.S. Navy Museum, Washington Navy Yard in Washington, DC.