Opening the ocean deeps

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, submersibles, deep ocean, expeditions

Josh Young has an explanation for what drives people like Victor Vescovo to extreme exploration: as many as eleven copies of a gene that affects sensitivity to dopamine, the "feel good" neurotransmitter. Most of us get along fine with two or three copies, and we may get a thrill from the occasional bit of risk-taking (like the pursuit of a friend and myself at age 13, of trying to go from one end of a block to another through back yards and not get caught). Those with genetically enhanced dopamine metabolism need stronger stuff.

Whether that is the explanation or not, Vescovo was driven, first to build a fortune of millions in various ventures, all the while spending substantial chunks of cash to complete the Explorers' Grand Slam, defined at the EGS website thus: "The Explorers Grand Slam or Adventurers Grand Slam is an adventurer's challenge to reach the North Pole, the South Pole and all of the Seven Summits." It takes a little more digging to find that "reaching" the Poles involves skiing at least the last hundred kilometers, even if you were taken there by aircraft, and that the Seven Summits are Everest, Kilimanjaro, Denali, Aconcagua, Vinson Massif (Antarctica), Elbrus, and Kosciuszko (Australia; later replaced by an Indonesian peak, the Carstensz Pyramid).

So there you are, fifty years old, and you've just completed the Grand Slam. Now what? There's plenty of life left in those old bones! Inspired by the challenge of the deep sea, Vescovo began almost immediately to add the Five Deeps to his accomplishments. As Josh Young writes in Expedition Deep Ocean: The First Descent to the Bottom of All Five of the World's Oceans, Victor Vescovo figured he could get a deep-diving submersible built for around $10 million or so, a tenth of his net worth at the time.

The actual cost came to more than twice that. Then the sub needed a tender, a ship and crew to take it from place to place and to launch and retrieve it. The submersible, built by Triton Submarines, was named Limiting Factor (LF), and the tender, a 225-foot craft, became Pressure Drop (PD). The ship needed extensive refitting. It had been a military craft, and upgrading it to commercial standards cost millions more. A state-of-the-art sonar system, so they could verify the depths reached, cost about another million, and three "landers", robotic, autonomous submersibles, cost $300,000 each. LF and PD and the landers were named for craft in the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks, a favorite series with Vescovo. The final cost of the construction, refitting, crewing, and expeditions was about $50 million.

In the picture above a portion of the pressure sphere and its portholes can be seen. The sphere is titanium, 59" in diameter (because of some international regulation), and weighs 8,000 lbs. From the size and weight I calculated that the wall thickness is 5.5". The sphere was certified in a testing chamber in Russia, the only one in the world that could test it to a pressure of 20,000 psi; the pressure at the Challenger Deep (Marianas Trench) is about 16,000 psi.

Much of the book relates the sturm und drang of getting the sub built and the tender refitted, plus the regulations and red tape Vescovo's team had to contend with, plus the friction that always develops when you have at least a dozen alpha males striving to work together. Much of the second half relates the year-long expedition to visit the Five Deeps (see more here). These, with their verified depths, are:

• Puerto Rico Trench, Atlantic Ocean, 8,376 m, 24,390 ft.
• South Sandwich Trench, Southern Ocean, 7,434 m, 24,390 ft.
• Java Trench, Indian Ocean, 7,192 m, 23,596 ft.
• Challenger Deep in Marianas Trench, Pacific Ocean, 10,925 m, 35,843 ft.
• Molloy Deep, Arctic Ocean, 5,551 m, 18,212 ft.

Of these, the Molloy Deep is the only one that is "shallower" than 6,000 m, the defined boundary of the Hadal Zone. Along the way, a few other deeps were plumbed, including the Sirena Deep, also in the Marianas Trench, at 10,714 m or 35,151 ft, which makes it the second-deepest Deep. Vescovo made at least one solo dive at each of the Five Deeps plus Sirena. He also made a solo dive to the wreck of the Titanic, and others made multiple dives at all locations.

A secondary function of the expedition was scientific, and a number of scientists were involved. So also were a couple of "tourists", including astronaut and game developer Richard Garriott, seen here with Vescovo inside LF. Garriott flew with ISS at his own expense ($30 million); I don't know if he self-funded his dive to the Challenger Deep, piloted by Vescovo.

Vescovo was one of a few pilots of LF, but when there was a celebrity to "take deep", such as Kathy Sullivan, the first woman to conduct a spacewalk and the now first woman to descend to the Challenger Deep, Vescovo piloted.

Triton and Vescovo were hoping the Triton Hadal Exploration System (LF plus PD) could be sold to a country, company, or consortium, but that has not yet occurred. Vescovo and his company Caladan Oceanic have conducted further explorations, typically with a more intense scientific component.

Although eating within LF is mentioned a few times, there is nothing about how toileting is handled in a sphere with an inside diameter of about four feet, further encumbered by oxygen tanks and other equipment, particularly with two occupants. If it were me (in my younger days, before my colon was shortened), a day or two of fasting, and abstaining from water for several hours before a twelve hour dive, would be needed. But I care for my creature comforts too much!

That's enough from me. It's a thrilling book, a great story well told.