The Five Deeps Expedition

Victor Vescovo · 2018 CE – 2019 CE · Earth

The Five Deeps Expedition — Victor Vescovo · 2018 CE – 2019 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Survey and then dive the deepest point of each of the five oceans within a single year.

Historical context

Before 2018 nobody had been to the deepest point of four of the five oceans, and the fifth, the Challenger Deep, had been reached by crewed dives only twice, in 1960 and 2012. Victor Vescovo’s Five Deeps Expedition treated the problem as logistics: a two-person submersible built by Triton Submarines to be certified for any depth, a former navy surveillance ship whose sonar could find each deepest point first, three landers, and a schedule run by EYOS Expeditions. Between December 2018 and August 2019 Vescovo dived all five, and his sub reached the Challenger Deep four times in eight days.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Trials in the Bahamas

    August 2018

    From August 2018, off the Bahamas, the support ship Pressure Drop and Limiting Factor, a two-person submersible with a titanium sphere built by Triton Submarines, run their sea trials. In September the sub dives repeatedly to nearly 5,000 metres in the Abaco Canyon.

  2. The bottom of the Atlantic

    19 December 2018

    On 19 December 2018, alone in Limiting Factor, Vescovo reaches 8,376 metres in the Brownson Deep of the Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest point of the Atlantic Ocean, after a descent of about two and a half hours.

  3. The bottom of the Southern Ocean

    4 February 2019

    On 4 February 2019, at the southern end of the South Sandwich Trench, Vescovo reaches 7,434 metres, the deepest point of the Southern Ocean, in what the expedition called the only hadal zone whose water is below zero.

  4. The Java Trench

    5 April 2019

    On 5 April 2019, due south of Bali, Vescovo dives alone to 7,192 metres at the deepest point of the Java Trench, also called the Sunda Trench, and becomes the first person to reach the deepest point of the Indian Ocean.

  5. Four times to the Challenger Deep

    28 April 2019

    On 28 April 2019 Vescovo pilots Limiting Factor alone to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, at a depth first announced as 10,928 metres, and stays 248 minutes. In the next seven days the sub goes back down three more times.

  6. The Molloy Deep

    24 August 2019

    On 24 August 2019, in the Fram Strait west of Svalbard, Vescovo dives alone to 5,550 metres at the bottom of the Molloy Deep, the deepest point of the Arctic Ocean, and completes the five deeps.

Outcome

All five deepest points reached by Vescovo, alone, between 19 December 2018 and 24 August 2019, each one mapped by sonar first and dived in the same submersible; the sub also went down to the Challenger Deep four times in eight days and was certified for repeated dives to full ocean depth.

Victor Vescovo

Investor and former naval officer who had a repeatable full-depth submersible built and dived the deepest point of every ocean between December 2018 and August 2019.

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