588 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



They all agreed it was tlie deepest place. I think that none would 

 have agreed that we would have been along a few years later to go 

 down in it. 



Mr. Downing. How deep is that ? 



Commander Walsh. 35,800 feet, approximately. This was over 

 5 years ago, so you will have to forgive me 



Mr. Downing. Well, that is still, what, 7 miles, 8 miles? 



Commander Walsh. It is roughly 7 miles — closer to 6i^, I suppose. 



Mr. Downing. And the Trieste is physically capable of going to 

 that depth? 



Commander Walsh. Yes, sir ; if we could find a deeper hole, and I 

 doubt it, we could go with that craft to some 40,000 or 50,000 feet with 

 some degree of safety. 



Mr. Downing. Are you able to — I do not mean to take the time of 

 the committee, Mr. Chairman, but it is interesting. 



Were you able to do anything at that depth? By doing, I mean 

 were you mobile or could you 



Commander Walsh. Yes, sir; the craft enjoys some mobility but 

 let me preface this statement by saying that the venerable Trieste I 

 has been retired after 10 years of active service. 



In late 1963 she was retired and is now laid up at San Diego, Calif., 

 having been replaced by the Trieste 11^ which is entirely U.S. built. 



Now, the Trieste I did have limited mobility, and we are talking in 

 the order of yards. However, when we landed on the sea floor at this 

 depth the bottom sediment was so fine that it went up in a cloud before 

 the window and we were essentially blind for our whole stay on the 

 bottom of 20 minutes. 



Just before we landed we did see a small shrimp form, and a flat fish, 

 something like a halibut. 



Mr. Downing. What would be the pressure at that depth ? 



Commander Walsh. Close to 8 tons per square inch. The total pres- 

 sure on the cabin was about 200,000 tons. The cabin being a small 

 sphere similar to the cabin of a stratosphere balloon. 



There was a two-man crew ; myself and Jacques Piccard, the son of 

 the inventor of the bathyscaphe. 



Mr. Downing. And you saw sea life at that depth ? 



Commander Walsh. Yes, sir ; this probably was the most significant 

 scientific payoff of that dive. 



Mr. Downing. Were these unusual forms of sea life ? 



Commander Walsh. No, sir ; rather conventional. 



I might add that neither Mr. Piccard nor myself are qualified ocean 

 scientists, and although having done much of this work we are a little 

 short in that particular area. This is why I am going to school now, to 

 get some "calibration." 



Mr. Downing. That is interesting. 



How long did it take to get down ? 



Commander Walsh. It took about 5% hours to get down and about 

 3 hours to get up. But I have been told by my engineer friends that 

 if you took a Civil War cannonball and dropped it in the water, it 

 would take about an hour to reach bottom, so I suppose we were doing 

 fairly well. 



Mr. Downing. Where could you store 7 miles of cable which would 

 permit you to get to that depth ? 



