The Navy's bathyscaph Trieste plunged to the bottom of the Marianas Trench today setting an all time depth record off the island of Guam in the Pacific.

The purpose of today's dive is to demonstrate that the United States now possesses the capability for manned exploration of the sea down to the deepest part of its floor.

Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh of San Diego and Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard made the historic dive to 37,800 feet at a position 11 degrees 19.7'N, 142 degrees 12'E. Both underseas explorers, after surfacing at about 1:00 AM (EST), January 23, said no difficulties were encountered during the dive.

That record lasted just six weeks when Walsh and Piccard rode the deep water craft to 24,000 feet.

Today the bottom was attained culminating over two years of planning, exploration, and research by the Navy's Electronic Laboratory in San Diego and the Office of Naval Research in Washington.

Completing the third in a series of dives, Project Nekton is gathering scientific knowledge of sunlight penetration, underwater visibility, transmission of manmade sounds, and marine geological studies of the trench.

Assisting the Trieste in the tests series of dives are the ships USS LEWIS (DE-535), commanded by Lieutenant Commander Daniel L. Banks, Jr., and USS WANDANK (ATA-204), commanded by Lieutenant A.W. Colley. Both ships are under the operational control of Commander Naval Forces Marianas.

The Trieste was purchased by the Navy from Auguste and Jacques Piccard, Swiss-born father-and-son team, who designed and built the craft.

Information provided by: http://www.onr.navy.mil