Bathyscaphe Trieste, deep sea scientific submarine
The Bathyscaphe Trieste is a preserved deep-sea submersible now displayed as a museum ship in Washington. The craft measures roughly 18 meters long and just under 6 meters tall, with a round steel sphere in the middle built to withstand intense water pressure.
The submersible was designed and built in Italy during the early 1950s by Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard. In 1960, it became the first crewed craft to reach Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, descending nearly 11,000 meters below the surface with two men aboard.
The name comes from the Italian city of Trieste, where the craft was designed and built. Visitors today see the compact steel pressure sphere that held only two people, and can imagine how tight and dark it must have been inside.
The museum ship sits in a covered display area and is accessible from all sides. Visitors can walk around the craft and read information panels that explain how it worked and the challenges faced by its crew.
During the record dive in 1960, one of the outer windows cracked at over 9,000 meters depth, but the crew continued the mission and returned safely. The tiny viewing port made of thick acrylic gave the two men only a narrow glimpse into the total darkness at the ocean floor.
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