Sixty years on, Jacques Piccard remains the ‘deepest man in the world’

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Auguste Piccard and his son Jacques (to his right) talking to the mayor of Trieste Keystone / Gianni Vitrotti

The Trieste flanked by two ships from the Italian navy near Naples in 1953. Auguste and his son – and co-designer – Jacques set a world record by taking it down to a depth of 3,150 metres in the Tyrrhenian Sea Ap1953

The Trieste with a Swiss and Italian flag after setting a world record in the Tyrrhenian Sea Ap1953

Auguste and Jacques Piccard answer journalists' questions after their feat Keystone / Ugo Sarto

Auguste and Jacques went down to a depth of 3,150 metres in the Tyrrhenian Sea Keystone / Str

A well-deserved rest on an Italian navy ship Keystone / Walter Attenni

Bought by the US Navy, the Trieste arrives in the Mariana Islands in December 1959 Keystone / Str

Jacques Piccard and his team do some last-minute checks before the historic dive on January 23, 1960 Us Navy/science Photo Library

Jacques Piccard (behind) and Don Walsh in the cabin of the Trieste Keystone / Str

Mission accomplished! Keystone / Str

Jacques Piccard (right) and Don Walsh pose in front of a replica of the Mariana Trench at the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne in 1985 Keystone / Str

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On January 23, 1960, the Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard and his American co-adventurer Don Walsh dived to the bottom of the deepest underwater trench in the world, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific. They thus set a record that still stands. 

Piccard and Walsh set out in the Trieste bathyscaphe, a deep-sea submersible Piccard had developed with his father, Auguste Piccard. The divers descended to 10,916 metres in nine hours. 

Auguste Piccard was known for his record-breaking helium-filled balloon flights, with which he studied the Earth’s upper atmosphere. He used the physical principles of his stratospheric balloon to build the Trieste bathyscaphe, named after the region in Italy from which they received funding. 

The Trieste was sold to the United States Navy, which was looking for a dumping ground for nuclear waste in an area devoid of marine life. Piccard and Walsh did find life, even at this depth, scuppering the US dumping plans.

Jacques Piccard died aged 86 in 2008. Don Walsh 88, is still alive.

“The moment we arrived, we had the immense good fortune to see, right in the middle of a circle of light from one of our beams, a fish. Thus, in one second, but after years of preparation, we could answer the question posed by thousands of oceanographers. Life, in a superiorly organised form, was possible whatever the depth.” Jacques Piccard