y: TheFNRSj 



WE have seen that the French authorities and French Navy lent 

 us valuable aid in 1948. From Dakar to the Cape Verde Islands, 

 and during the tests, the dispatch-vessel Elie-Monnier and the frigates 

 Croix- de- Lorraine and Le- Verrier never left our sides. I still feel a 

 great gratitude to all of them. 



With the French officers we naturally discussed the results obtained 

 and the difficulties encountered. We were all agreed that it was neces- 

 sary to modify the structure of the FNRS 2 in certain of its parts. In 

 particular, taking it on board had proved difficult. Therefore it was 

 advisable to go back to the former plan, studied by me in 1938, which 

 had been abandoned for reasons of economy, the towing of the bathy- 

 scaphe to the diving-place with its float already full of petrol. Apart 

 from the cost, this solution offered no extra difficulties in particular. 

 It was enough to follow the lines of the hull of a vessel : however, it 

 implied that on the high seas the crew would have to enter the cabin 

 by a shaft and operate the door while the cabin was submerged. 



Upon my return to Brussels I studied this problem in detail. But the 

 Fonds National had to take into account public opinion and the re- 

 actions of the Press. They were reproached with having invested funds 

 in an undertaking doomed from the first: they had to pay the more 

 attention to these opinions because I was of Swiss nationality and I was 

 not a sailor. Discussions followed; in 1950 the Fonds National signed 

 an agreement with the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifi- 

 que (National Centre of Scientific Research) and with the French Navy, 

 by the terms of which the French Navy took upon itself to transform 

 the bathyscaphe by utilizing the cabin of the FNRS 2. The Belgian 

 institute granted large credits for the new undertaking. M. Cosyns 

 and I were nominated 'scientific advisers'. The bathyscaphe remained 

 the property of the Fonds National until three dives to great depths 

 had taken place : then it would belong to the French Navy. It was to 

 be called the FNRS j. 



In the beginning, in my capacity as adviser, I went to Toulon on 

 several occasions : my suggestions were of use, I believe, since the 

 arsenal did not possess an experimental physicist. I may say that I 

 began this work with enthusiasm. But the conditions under which I 



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