Record #00501Human Society archive
On 23 January 1960, U.S. Navy lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss explorer Jacques Piccard reached the seafloor of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste, accomplishing the first crewed descent.
Achievement date
1960
1960-01-23
Designed by Auguste Piccard, Trieste was acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1958 and refitted with a stronger crew sphere before the Project Nekton dives near Guam.
Its gasoline-filled float provided buoyancy and its thick-walled pressure sphere protected the crew. Reaching Challenger Deep in January 1960 demonstrated the feasibility of a crewed round trip into the ocean's deepest known region.
The record conclusion has sufficient verification support.
Basis: direct confirmation by an authority
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command and Office of Naval Research document Trieste's first crewed Challenger Deep descent with Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard on 23 January 1960. Both participants are separately modelled as persons and the bathyscaphe remains the object holder; disputed depth readings are not used as the achievement value.
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