Jacques Piccard and his companion Don Walsh used this vehicle in 1960 to become the first people to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, a descent of almost 11,000 metres. Their journey took more than four hours, the pressure on the vessel increasing with every metre.
To get an idea of what this would have felt like at the bottom of the sea, imagine three SUVs stacked on top of each other and balanced on your toe. But the Trieste withstood the enormous pressure and returned its passengers safely from the ocean bed to the surface. Jacques Piccard’s record has never been broken.