The ''Ben Franklin'' mesoscaphe, also known as the ''Grumman/Piccard PX-15'', is a crewed underwater

submersible A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of ind ...

, built in 1968. It was the brainchild of explorer and inventor

Jacques Piccard Jacques Piccard (28 July 19221 November 2008) was a Swiss oceanographer and engineer, known for having developed underwater submarines for studying ocean currents. In the Challenger Deep, he and Lt. Don Walsh of the United States Navy were the ...

. The research vessel was designed to house a six-man crew for up to 30 days of oceanographic study in the depths of the

Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Current, North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida a ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

became involved, seeing this as an opportunity to study the effects of long-term, continuous close confinement, a useful simulation of long space flights. The ship was named after American

Founding Father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

Design and operation

The ''Ben Franklin'' was built between 1966 and 1968 at the

Giovanola Giovanola Frères SA was a prominent steel manufacturing company based in Monthey, Switzerland. It was known for building electrical power stations, water storage tanks, pipelines, boilers, highway bridges, submarines, ski lifts and many other st ...

fabrication plant in

Monthey Monthey (; frp, Montê) is the capital of the district of Monthey in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. History The castle in the town center was built in 950 on a hill, the first houses of Monthey surrounded it. Monthey is first mention ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

by Piccard and the

Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 1994 ...

headed by Donald B Terrana, then disassembled and shipped to Florida. The vessel is the first submarine to be built to

American Bureau of Shipping American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

(ABS) standards. With a design crush depth of , it was designed to drift along at

neutral buoyancy Neutral buoyancy occurs when an object's average density is equal to the density of the fluid in which it is immersed, resulting in the buoyant force balancing the force of gravity that would otherwise cause the object to sink (if the body's dens ...

at depths between . The 130-ton ship has four external electric propulsion pods, primarily used for altitude trimming. It is powered by tons of

lead batteries Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...

stored outside the hull. Its length is , with a beam of and a height of . Piccard insisted on 29 observation

porthole A porthole, sometimes called bull's-eye window or bull's-eye, is a generally circular window used on the hull of ships to admit light and air. Though the term is of maritime origin, it is also used to describe round windows on armored vehicles ...

s, despite the objections of engineers over the inclusion of potentially fatal weak points. It began its voyage on July 14, 1969, off

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from several nearby cities including West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intracoas ...

, with Piccard as the mission leader. Accompanied by surface support vessels, it resurfaced on August 14, away, south of Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Canada. The ''Ben Franklin'' made a few more dives after 1969, including the first deep-sea dive for

Robert Ballard Robert Duane Ballard (born June 30, 1942) is an American retired Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology: maritime archaeology and archaeology of ...

, the discoverer of the wreck of the . After running aground on a reef in 1971, the ''Ben Franklin'' was sold to Vancouver businessman John Horton, only to languish for nearly three decades on the North Shore. In December 1999, with a sudden decision to either move or scrap the submersible, it was offered to the

Vancouver Maritime Museum The Vancouver Maritime Museum is a maritime museum devoted to presenting the maritime history of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and the Canadian Arctic. Opened in 1959 as a Vancouver centennial project, it is located within Vanier Park ...

. After refurbishment, the submersible was placed in front of the museum.

Crew

* Jacques Piccard, the senior scientist on board, as well as the designer and engineer of the vessel * Frank Busby and Kenneth Haigh, Naval Oceanographic Office personnel * Chester May, NASA scientist in charge of observing the crew * Don Kazimir, Chief Pilot and a former navy submarine officer * Erwin Aebersold, an associate of Jacques' and co-pilot to Kazimir

Influence

Ambient artists Mathieu Ruhlmann and Celer collaboratively released an album called ''Mesoscaphe'' in 2008 dedicated to the voyage of the ''Ben Franklin''.

References

External links

The ''Ben Franklin'' - Grumman/Piccard PX-15 Website
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20040211145043/http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/FRANKLIN/HTML/franklin_captains_log.html ''Ben Franklin'': Captain's Log {{DEFAULTSORT:Ben Franklin (Px-15) Research submarines of Switzerland Human analog missions 1968 ships Submarines of Switzerland Ships built in Switzerland Museum ships in Canada Museum ships in British Columbia Ships named for Founding Fathers of the United States

Design and operation

Crew

Influence

See also

References

External links