William Beebe, Director of the Department of Tropical Research of the New York Zoological Society (now the Wildlife Conservation Society) first ventured down to “Davy Jones locker” in the steel and quartz orb known as the Bathysphere back in 1931. It was off the coast of Nonsuch Island, Bermuda, where he and Otis Barton, designer of the bathysphere, set a depth record of 1,426 feet and were able to observe and document the marine inhabitants of the deep sea. However, Beebe and Barton did not accomplish this feat alone - on the expedition team were Gloria Hollister, Chief Technical Associate, who was the main line of communication between Beebe and the surface; Else Bostelmann, who took Beebe’s descriptions of marine creatures and translated them to vibrant illustrations; and laboratory assistant, Jocelyn Crane, who helped identify the marine life.
Beebe published his detailed findings, along with Bostelmann’s color illustrations, in the June 1931 issue of NGM.
In 1934, this time sponsored by the National Geographic Society, Beebe and his team returned to the Bermuda waters. The clip above is from the 1934 expedition, and you can see Hollister in action on deck. She was Beebe and Barton’s’ only line of communication to the world above—copying down Beebe’s every observation, relaying their depth, and passing on orders to raise or lower the sphere—via a telephone line clamped steel cord. Hollister, herself, actually dove in the Bathysphere a couple of times and set the world record for the deepest dive undertaken by a woman. (On June 11, 1930, her thirtieth birthday, she went down 410 feet for the women’s descent record. In 1934, she would nearly triple her own record by descending to 1,208 feet.)
After a few test dives, Beebe and Barton would reach a historic depth of 3,028 feet.
Beebe writes in his December 1934 article, “Truly, we in the Bathysphere had the best of it at all times. The only other place comparable to these marvelous nether regions must surely be naked space itself, out far beyond atmosphere, between the stars, where sunlight has no grip upon the dust and rubbish of planetary air, where the blackness of space, the shining planets, comets, suns and stars must really be closely akin to the world of life as it appears to the eyes of an awed human being in the open ocean a half mile down.” (704)
For more on the Bathysphere expeditions, please read:
Geopedia: https://nglibrary-ngs-org.natgeo.idm.oclc.org/geopedia/1934-half-mile-down
“A Round Trip to Davy Jones’s Locker: Peering into Mysteries a Quarter Mile Down in the Open Sea, by Means of the Bathysphere” by William Beebe. NGM June 1931.
“A Half Mile Down: Strange Creatures, Beautiful and Grotesque as Figments of Fancy, Reveal Themselves at Windows of the Bathysphere” by William Beebe. NGM December 1934.
An illustration of the Bathysphere by Charles E. Riddiford.
Two of the many illustrations by Else Bostlemann.
Gloria Hollister testing the communication equipment. Photo by William Beebe.
Else Bostlemann at work on her sketches. Photo by John Tee-Van.
Jocelyn Crane (post Bathysphere expedition) studying fiddler crabs. Photo by Milo Woodbridge.
Banner Photo Credit: Renan Ozturk
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