I had chosen as my assistant, and who is a Belgian citizen (while I am 

 of Swiss nationality), should share the supervision of the undertaking 

 with me, with complete equality of rights and responsibility. 



Such a division of command was no doubt necessary from the 

 political point of view, but the formula hardly proved fortunate in 

 practice. An achievement of this importance demands someone in 

 absolute command : as- this chief cannot physically perform the whole 

 task himself, he must be surrounded by assistants over whom he has 

 authority. 



In the following chapters we are going to discuss, to begin with, 

 some questions of a general nature relating to all bathyscaphes ; then 

 we shall begin on a detailed description of the building of the FNRS 2. 



[28 [ 



