Seven Miles Down: The Story of the Bathyscaph Trieste

248pp. In pale blue cloth-covered boards with black titles on spine. 8vo. Cloth gently rubbed and rounded at spine ends, moderately sunned over spine and on upper edges. Upper text block edge spotting. Three previous owners' names on front endpapers, endpapers showing a few rust marks. Some faint and very occasional spotting on prelims. In its original dust jacket, chipped around spine with moderate edge wear all round. Dust jacket now protected in an archival quality Mylar wrapper, fitted without the use of tape or adhesives. When the bathyscaph Trieste carried Jacques Piccard and Lt Don Walsh of the US Navy to the deepest known point in the world's oceans, the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Pacific off Guam, history was made. This is the complete story of the invention and development of the bathyscaph Trieste, and covers its European and Mediterranean dives in the 1950s, the sale of the Trieste to the US Navy and its subsequent dives off San Diego, and finally an egrossing description of the ultra-deep dives - seven miles down - of Project Nekton. Now a very hard to find title.