THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



over the phone that all the vents were opened. Those 

 above the two men, on deck, moved to the dinghy and 

 cast off from the bathyscaphe. In a few moments all 

 personnel were away from the float. 



Inside the submerged sphere, Willm informed the Elie 

 Monnier that they were ready to dive. Back came the 

 instruction from Commander Tailliez, supervising the 

 operation: ''Hello, bathyscaphe, you may dive." 



Houot — still in the upper structure — dashed for the 

 porthole of the hatch. Sea water was already swilling 

 over it. He went through into the steel ball — over six feet 

 in diameter, with a shell varying from 3 to 6 inches — 

 and closed the hatch. The two men took their positions 

 at the controls, watching the gauges. Over the radio- 

 telephone came the words : ''Your deck is going under.*' 



The needles of the vertical-speed log jerked spas- 

 modically and then settled down to their registration, 

 showing that the blades of the instrument were already 

 turning. The dive had begun. Willm read off the metres : 

 "Seven — eight — nine — ten." Two-way communication 

 was cut as the bathyscaphe left the surface at 10.8 a.m. 

 While surfaced it had been possible by radio-telephone. 

 It still remained possible to send signals upward — not 

 speech. But no messages or signals of any kind could 

 come down to them through the intervening water, upon 

 the surface of which only a widening patch of fluorescent 

 green now remained to show where the bathyscaphe had 

 rested. 



Houot and Willm were now suspended in their steel 

 sphere from a float carrying over 17,000 gallons of petrol 

 in twelve tanks, and several tons of lead and steel shot, 

 their controls enabling them to regulate the speed of the 

 entire structure's descent or ascent. Isolated from the 

 world above them, as they sank into the abyss, they 

 continually tapped out signals on the asdic key, but had 

 no means of knowing whether or not they were received 

 by the Elie Monnier above them. 



14 



