Jacques Piccard

Jacques Piccard was a Swiss engineer and oceanographer. He dedicated his life to studying the deep parts of our oceans.

His family held a unique distinction in the history of exploration. His father, Auguste Piccard, set world records for high-altitude balloon flights. Jacques followed this path of discovery by breaking records for deep-sea diving. Together, the Piccard family holds the records for both the highest flight and the deepest dive ever recorded. This legacy of extreme exploration continued through his son, Bertrand Piccard, who led the first non-stop balloon flight around the world in 1999.

To reach the ocean floor, Piccard utilized a special vessel called a bathyscaphe. This was a type of submersible designed for extreme depths. He developed this technology by applying buoyancy techniques used in high-altitude balloons. Between 1948 and 1955, Jacques and his father built three bathyscaphes. These vessels reached depths of 4,600 feet and 10,000 feet. The U.S. Navy eventually purchased one of these vessels, which became known as the Trieste. The Navy used the Trieste to test its ability to perform submarine salvage and rescue operations at great depths.

On January 23, 1960, Piccard and Lieutenant Don Walsh performed a historic mission. They traveled to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific Ocean. This trench is the deepest known location on the Earth's crust. The descent to the floor took four hours. They reached a depth of 35,813 feet, though later measurements in 1995 suggested the trench was 35,797 feet deep. The mission was not intended for scientific research or sample collection. Instead, its primary purpose was to prove that humans could reach such extreme depths.

The journey was not entirely smooth. When the crew reached 30,000 feet, they heard a loud crack. Despite this, they continued the descent until they touched the seabed. The bottom was covered in a "snuff-colored ooze." While there, the crew observed a flat fish and a new type of shrimp. However, marine biologists later questioned these sightings. They argued that the immense pressure of 17,000 psi would make it impossible for fish to survive there.

Safety concerns forced Piccard to end the mission quickly. He discovered cracks in the viewing windows of the Trieste. Because of this damage, the crew stayed on the bottom for only 20 minutes. They began dumping ballast, which is heavy material used to control depth, to rise to the surface. The return trip took three hours and 15 minutes. Piccard later wrote about this experience in his book, Seven Miles Down, co-authored with geologist Robert S. Dietz. Despite the success, a return expedition was never organized because the Trieste was too expensive to operate and could not collect scientific samples.

Piccard also led a different type of underwater mission in 1969. He commanded a crew aboard the Ben Franklin, which was a mesoscaphe. This vessel was built between 1966 and 1968 in Switzerland. On July 14, 1969, the crew entered the Gulf Stream off the coast of Florida. They drifted north with the powerful current for more than four weeks. By the end of the mission, the vessel surfaced near Maine. This mission allowed scientists to study the movement of ocean currents over a long period.

The Ben Franklin mission also served as a study of human behavior. The six-man international crew included specialists in acoustics, oceanography, and NASA observer Chet May. Wernher von Braun, a famous rocket scientist, viewed the mission as an analogue to space travel. He wanted to study how prolonged isolation affects a human crew. This was particularly relevant as NASA prepared for missions like Skylab. Today, the Ben Franklin is preserved and displayed at the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Canada.

Throughout his life, Piccard contributed to many scientific and cultural organizations. He was a founding member of the World Cultural Council in 1981. He also founded the Foundation for the Study and Protection of Seas and Lakes in Switzerland. In 1972, he received the Howard N. Potts Medal for his achievements. His work bridged the gap between engineering and oceanography, showing how new technology could open the most inaccessible parts of our planet.