Jacques Piccard,Deep sea submarine pioneer dies

Deep sea submarine pioneer dies

Jacques Piccard was still taking dives into his seventies

Swiss-based marine explorer and inventor Jacques Piccard, who was part of the deepest submarine dive in history, has died at his home aged 86.

In 1960, Piccard and US co-pilot Don Walsh took a submersible developed by his father to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific.

They went 11km (seven miles) beneath the surface of the sea.

Their discovery of living organisms at that depth led to a ban on the dumping of nuclear waste in ocean trenches.

"By far the most interesting find was the fish that came floating by our porthole," Piccard said afterwards.

"We were astounded to find higher marine life forms down there at all."

'Relishing the unknown'

News of Piccard's death was announced in a message carried by the website of his son, the balloonist Bertrand Piccard.

"One of the last great explorers of the 20th Century, a true Captain Nemo who went deeper than any other man, Jacques Piccard passed away on Saturday... at his home on the edge of his beloved Lake Geneva," it said, referring to the hero created by French writer Jules Verne in his novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.

Bertrand Piccard added:

"He passed on to me a sense of curiosity, a desire to mistrust dogmas and common assumptions, a belief in free will and confidence in the face of the unknown."

Jacques Piccard was born in Brussels, son of balloonist Auguste Piccard. He studied in Switzerland, where he settled.

After the Mariana Trench dive, he worked for the US space agency Nasa, exploring deep seas, and built four mid-depth submarines, including the first tourist submarine which he used to take passengers into the depths of Lake Geneva.

bbc

著名深海探險家皮卡德去世

皮卡德70多歲時仍進行深水活動

居住在瑞士的深海探險家與發明家雅克﹒皮卡德在家中病逝，享年86歲。

皮卡德是最深海域探險史的傳奇人物。1960年，他和美國同僚沃爾什一起駕駛一艘由他父親設計的潛水器深入到了太平洋最深處的馬利亞納海溝。

他們下潛的深度距離海面1.1萬米。

正是由於他們對深海水下生物的發現，國際社會決定禁止向大洋深谷丟棄核廢料。

皮卡德事後描述他們的經歷時曾說：“最為有趣的發現莫過於那些從潛艇舷窗旁飄然遊過的各種魚類。在那麼深處發現高級生物令我們感到驚愕。”

探索未知

雅克﹒皮卡德去世的消息是由他的兒子、熱氣球探險家波特蘭﹒皮卡德在自己的網站上發佈的。

他說，這位20世紀最後一位偉大的探險家於周六（11月1日）在他心愛的日內瓦湖畔的家中去世。

在聲明中，波特蘭﹒皮卡德把自己的父親形容為“一位真正的尼摩船長，曾經到達過超過任何人的水下深處。”

尼摩船長是法國小說家儒勒﹒凡爾納的科幻小說《海底兩萬哩》中的主人公。

波特蘭﹒皮卡德還說，父親傳給他的是好奇感、向教條和常識挑戰的慾望、對自由的信念，以及探索未知世界的信心。

雅克﹒皮卡德出生在布魯塞爾，其父是熱氣球探險家奧古斯特﹒皮卡德。雅克﹒皮卡德後來到瑞士讀書並在那裡定居。

在馬利亞納海溝探險之後，雅克﹒皮卡德就職於美國航天局，繼續從事深海探險，並設計建造了4艘中深度水下潛艇，其中包括他經常帶領遊客在日內瓦湖進行水下遊覽的世界上第一艘旅遊潛艇。