Down to the Sea

No one will deny that the study of the ocean, like that of the atmosphere, should be three-dimensional. It was not, however, until almost a century ago that the four-year circumnavigation of H.M.S. Challenger pioneered the exploration of the deep sea during an era of marine exploration in which most of the leading maritime nations took part. Particularly outstanding were the deep sea scientific expeditions of Prince Albert I of Monaco, made almost every year between 1885 and 1915, and during which his achievement in dredging zoological specimens from a depth of 6000 metres (20,000 ft.) remained unequalled for over fifty years. A contemporary of Prince Albert was the brilliant Swiss scientist, Professor Auguste Piccard, who was the first to reach the great height of 17,000 metres in the stratosphere enclosed in a sealed cabin attached to a hydrogen-filled balloon. The cabin invented by Professor Piccard was the forerunner of the pressurized cabin used in aircraft today. After his conquest of the stratosphere, Professor Piccard turned his attention to the hydrosphere. Still guided by the Principle of Archimedes, he constructed the revolutionary submersible that could dive to any depth in the ocean as was proved to the world on 23rd January 1960, when his son, Dr. Jacques Piccard, piloted the bathyscaph Trieste to the bottom of the 7 mile deep Challenger Trench in the Pacific Ocean. Masters, Trimmers, Stevedores, etc, will find the tables of great value.