Archimède
The bathyscaphe Archimède is a deep diving research submersible of the French Navy. It used of hexane as the gasoline buoyancy of its float. It was designed by Pierre Willm and Georges Houot. In 1964, Archimède descended into "what was then thought to be the deepest part of the Puerto Rico Trench", which the NY Times reported as. On 21 December 2018, a dive by Victor Vescovo in the DSV Limiting Factor found the "true bottom" of the Atlantic Ocean to be, in the first manned descent to the deepest "verified bottom" of the Atlantic Ocean.
Archimède was christened on 27 July 1961, at the French Navy base of Toulon. It was designed to go beyond, and displaced 61 tons. In October 1961, Archimède passed its first dive tests, diving to unmanned. On 27 November 1961, Archimède achieved a speed of, over a distance of at a depth of in the Mediterranean Sea.
On 23 May 1962, Archimède descended to off Honshu, Japan, in the Pacific, at the Japan Deep. On 15 July 1962, Archimède descended to into the Kurile-Kamchatcha Trench, making it the second deepest dive ever, at that point in time, second only to the dive on the Challenger Deep. On 12 August 1962, Archimède descended to in the Japan Deep south of Tokyo.
Archimède explored the Mid-Atlantic Ridge jointly with the submarine Cyana and submersible, in Project FAMOUS in 1974.
Archimède operated until the 1970s. As of 2008, it is on operational reserve, at Toulon. Archimède was honoured with a stamp in Palau.
