Deep sea explorer Don Walsh, part of 2-man crew to first reach deepest point of ocean, dies at 92
Retired Navy Capt. Don Walsh, an explorer who in 1960 was part of a two-man crew that made the first voyage to the deepest part of the ocean — to the “snuff-colored ooze” at the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean — has died. He was 92.
Walsh died Nov. 12 at his home in Myrtle Point, Oregon, his daughter Elizabeth Walsh said Monday.
In January 1960, Walsh, then a U.S. Navy lieutenant, and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard were trapped in a 150-ton steel-hulled bathyscaphe called the Trieste in an attempt to dive nearly seven miles below the surface. A bathyscaphe is a self-propelled submarine used for deep-sea diving.
The two men descended to 35,800 feet (11,000 meters) into the Challenger Deep, the deepest point of Earth’s oceans, part of the Mariana Trench, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Guam in the Pacific Ocean.
After about five hours of descent, the steel-hulled submarine landed on what the log described as the “snuff-colored ooze” of silt kicked up by the ship as it reached the bottom.
When they reached the seabed, the two men shook hands.
“I knew we were making history,” Walsh told The World newspaper in Coos Bay, Oregon, in 2010. “It was a special day.”
After lying on the ground for 20 minutes and confirming that there was life there when a fish swam by, they began their 3.5-hour ascent.
“We were surprised to find higher forms of marine life there at all,” Piccard said before his death in 2008.
Piccard designed the ship with his father and they sold it to the US Navy in 1958. Walsh was serving temporarily in San Diego when Piccard asked for volunteers to drive the vehicle. Walsh took a step forward.
“There was an opportunity to pioneer,” Walsh told The World. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I knew I would be at sea. Only later did they tell us what they had in store.”
Walsh was born on November 2, 1931 in Berkeley, California. He joined the Navy at age 17 and graduated from the US Naval Academy. He earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in oceanography from Texas A&M.
He served in the Navy for 24 years, retiring with the rank of captain and serving on several submarines. He then became a professor at the University of Southern California before opening his own maritime consulting firm in 1976.
In 2010, he received the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award and has served on many boards, including as a policy advisor at the U.S. Department of State.
“Walsh was a naval officer, a submariner, an adventurer and an oceanographer. To his family, we extend our deepest condolences and gratitude for giving him the opportunity to explore and share his extraordinary experiences and knowledge with us,” Chief Adm. of Naval Research Kurt Rothenhaus said in a Navy news release.
Walsh traveled the world, including many trips to Antarctica, where the pointed rock Walsh Spur is named after him.
His daughter said one of the first lessons she and her brother Kelly learned from their parents is that the world is not a scary place — a lesson that was reinforced because their parents always came home after their various trips.
He encouraged them to go out too.
“Don’t be afraid of it and go on adventures, learn things and meet people,” she recalled of him teaching. “He certainly instilled in Kelly and me an enthusiastic curiosity about the world, and that is a wonderful gift.”
In 2020, Kelly Walsh made his own journey to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in a ship owned and piloted by Dallas explorer Victor Vescovo.
“An extraordinary explorer, oceanographer and human being. I am so honored to call him my friend,” Vescovo posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, the day after Don Walsh’s death.
In addition to his children, Walsh is also survived by his wife of 61 years, Joan.
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Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.