'Just a Longer Day at the Office'
An interview with Don Walsh
In January 1960, he and French copilot Jacques Piccard navigated the U.S. Navy's bathyscaph Trieste into the Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in the World Ocean. At nearly seven miles, the record still stands. Retired U.S. Navy Captain Walsh also was a member of Operation Deep Freeze in 1971, spending more than a month on the ice in Antarctica and earning recognition for his contributions there by having an Antarctic mountain ridge named for him. Today, Captain Walsh is president of International Maritime, Inc., an Oregon-based consulting company that has completed projects in 20 nations. He is one of 20 living Honorary Members of the Explorers Club, an Honorary Life Member of the Adventurers Club, and a Fellow of England's Royal Geographic Society. Captain Walsh is a 1954 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and earned Master's and Doctorate degrees in Oceanography from Texas A&M University and a second Master's degree from California State University in San Diego. A technical advisor for such films as Gray Lady Down , Raise the Titanic , The Hunt for Red October , and The Abyss , Captain Walsh is scheduled to lead an expedition in April 2000 to HMS Breadalbane , the world's northernmost shipwreck, 350 feet beneath the ice off Beechey Island in the Canadian Arctic. He spoke recently about a variety of topics to Naval History Editor Fred L. Schultz.
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Dr. Walsh is neither marine archaeologist nor treasure hunter. He has spent the past four decades involved with design, manufacture, and operation of submersible systems. A retired naval officer (submarines) he was designated U.S. Navy deep submersible pilot #1 in the early 1970s. During 2001, in addition to Atlantic Sands, hehas participated in diving operations at the battleship Bismarck (16,000 feet) and RMS Titanic (12,500 feet). On 20 July 2001, he had lunch on board the Titanic, when the Mir 2 landed on the bridge so the sub crew could eat.
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