Exploring the Deeps
From top: In the Mariana
Trench; a new species of
sea squirt in Java Trench.
a retired U.S. Navy submarine captain who was part of the mission
teams that went to Titanic and Bismarck, remembers surface activ-
ity as the worst part. Unless the ocean is completely calm, which it
rarely is, the process of getting a submersible under the water can be
white-knuckle. On the Mir, McLaren said, “even a little sea state felt
like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.”
For the Puerto Rico dives, this process was very much a work in
progress. Weight limitations on Pressure Drop’s crane meant the
team had to lower Limiting Factor into the water without Vescovo
inside. He traveled out to the sub in a Zodiac and then—with the
assistance of a diver straddling the top of the bucking craft, as if
riding a bronco—climbed into the hatch.
“It’s the riskiest part of the operation,” Vescovo said. As one7
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After Vescovo’s first-ever
descent of the Java Trench,
Five Deeps chief scientist
Alan Jamieson, an expert in
so-called hadal zones, vis-
ited the ocean floor for the
first time in his career. His
team documented finds,
including what might be
new species of snailfish and
amphipod. —MRDive 3: Indian
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Burj
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