Lake Geneva, straddling Switzerland and France, a place I’ve written about before from my balcony in Thollon, is vast – over 70 km long and plunging to depths of more than 300 meters.
It’s no surprise people have always wondered what lies beneath the surface.
In 1964, for a brief moment, you could find out for yourself.
This is the story of the Auguste Piccard – the world’s first tourist submarine – and the extraordinary people behind it.
Above image by Paebi, feature image by Kecko, both on Wikimedia Commons
The world’s first tourist submarine
Built for the Swiss National Exhibition, Expo 64 in Lausanne, the Auguste Piccard was a ‘mesoscaphe’ – a mid-depth submarine designed not for war or research, but for ordinary people. It offered something completely new.
From the lakeside at Le Bouveret, visitors could board and descend into the dark waters of Lake Geneva.
Over the course of the exhibition, more than 33,000 passengers made the journey.
Forty passengers at a time descended into the murky depths, accompanied by two glamorous hostesses – Madeleine and Monique.
This was no austere scientific expedition.
Passengers were seated in comfort, attended by hostesses, and treated to a glimpse of a hidden world below the lake’s surface.
It was, quite simply, the hottest ticket in town.
Even Walt Disney took an interest.
There were stranger passengers too – including two chimpanzees from the Knie Circus – and a fashion show was filmed on board for Swiss TV.
For a moment it felt as if the future had arrived.
A short-lived dream
Despite its success, the submarine’s time on Lake Geneva was brief.
It operated for just a few months in 1964, with a short return the following summer. In total, it completed over 1,000 dives – and then, just as suddenly, it was gone.
The Auguste Piccard was sold and eventually ended up in Texas, where it sat for years, rusting and forgotten.
From lake to legend
But that wasn’t the end of the story.
In 1981, the submarine was brought back into service – this time in a far more ambitious role. It was rented by an American salvage company searching for the legendary Spanish galleon San José, often called the ‘mother of all shipwrecks’.
Sunk in 1708 and believed to hold billions in treasure, the wreck became the centre of a complex international dispute – with Spain, Colombia, Peru and others all laying claim.
The Auguste Piccard became part of that story.
From quiet alpine lake to Caribbean treasure hunt – not a bad second act.
Home at Last
Eventually, a group of volunteers brought the submarine back to Switzerland.
After years of restoration, it found a permanent home at the Transport Museum in Lucerne, where it can still be seen today.
Dondui Wikimedia Commons
The Extraordinary Piccards
Behind it all was an extraordinary family.
Auguste Piccard, physicist and explorer, pushed the boundaries of human exploration – from the upper atmosphere to the depths of the ocean.
His achievements were remarkable:
- first man to reach the stratosphere
- pioneer of deep-sea exploration
- first to see the curvature of the earth
- inspiration for the bathyscaphe
His son Jacques would go even further, reaching the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
And his grandson Bertrand circumnavigated the globe in a solar-powered aircraft.
Exploration, it seems, runs in the family.
Auguste Piccard in Deutsches Bundesarchiv for Wikimedia Commons
It’s in their DNA to go beyond the obvious and achieve the impossible
So…the Star Trek connection?
If the name Piccard sounds familiar, it should.
The exploits of Auguste and his twin brother Jean so impressed Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry that he named his most famous captain after them.
Jean-Luc Picard.
From Lake Geneva to the final frontier.
Hergé is also said to have immortalised Auguste in Tintin, in the absent-minded brilliance of Professor Calculus.
Helgi Halldórsson Wikimedia Commons
A final thought
For a brief moment in 1964, visitors to Lake Geneva could step into a submarine and explore a hidden world beneath the surface.
It didn’t last long.
But like all great ideas, it left a trace – in science, in exploration and even in fiction.
Exploration is a state of mind. If we want to innovate and achieve impossible goals, we have to understand that the only obstacle to success is our mindset. It is the accumulation of beliefs and habits that keep us prisoners of old ways of thinking.
Bertrand Piccard
