Archimède

Archimède in 1961, on launch
History
France
Name	Archimède
Namesake	Archimedes
Commissioned	27 July 1961
General characteristics
Type	Bathyscaphe
Displacement	61 tons

The bathyscaphe Archimède is a deep diving research submersible of the French Navy. It used 42,000 US gallons (160,000 L) of hexane as the gasoline buoyancy of its float.^[1] It was designed by Pierre Willm and Georges Houot.^[2] In 1964, Archimède descended into "what was then thought to be the deepest part of the Puerto Rico Trench",^[3] which the NY Times reported as 27,500 feet (8,400 m).^[4]

Archimède was christened on 27 July 1961, at the French Navy base of Toulon. It was designed to go beyond 30,000 feet (9,100 m),^[5] and displaced 61 tons.^[6] In October 1961, Archimède passed its first dive tests, diving to 5,000 feet (1,500 m) unmanned.^[7] On 27 November 1961, Archimède achieved a speed of 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph), over a distance of 4.5 miles (7.2 km) at a depth of 7,870 feet (2,400 m) in the Mediterranean Sea.^[8]

On 23 May 1962, Archimède descended to 15,744 feet (4,799 m) off Honshu, Japan, in the Pacific, at the Japan Deep.^[9] On 15 July 1962, Archimède descended to 31,350 feet (9,560 m) into the Kurile-Kamchatcha Trench, making it the second deepest dive ever, at that point in time, second only to the Bathyscaphe Trieste dive on the Challenger Deep.^[10] On 12 August 1962, Archimède descended to 30,511 feet (9,300 m) in the Japan Deep south of Tokyo.^[11]

Archimède explored the Mid-Atlantic Ridge jointly with the submarine Cyana and submersible DSV Alvin, in Project FAMOUS (French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study) in 1974.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Archimède operated until the 1970s.^[16] It was placed on reserve in 1975, and decommissioned in 1978.^[17]

Since 2001, Archimède is on display^[18] at the Cité de la Mer museum in Cherbourg.

Archimède was honoured with a stamp in Palau.^[19]

References

External links

Media related to Archimede (submarine, 1961) at Wikimedia Commons