Lake Geneva, divided by the borders of Switzerland and France, is huge. It measures over 70 km long and is 310 meters at its deepest point.
It’s no wonder people have always been intrigued by what’s beneath the surface. Back in 1964, there was an opportunity to take a look for yourself, in the world’s largest-ever tourist submarine.
This is the story of the Auguste Piccard and its extraordinary adventures. It’s a story of incredible achievements, bitter disappointment, and Caribbean treasure, and it all starts here.
Above image by Paebi, feature image by Kecko, both on Wikimedia Commons
To boldly go where no man has gone before
What do Star Trek and Lake Geneva, Switzerland have in common? I’ll give you a clue… it’s a name that conjures up images of intrepid explorers and adventurers. Men who went where no man had been before.
Yes, you’ve got it…. Picard.
Captain Picard of the USS Enterprise featured in the long-running TV series, Star Trek. Harnessing the power of new technologies, Picard explored the outer reaches of the universe and pushed the boundaries of space exploration.
The World’s largest tourist submarine
Auguste Piccard and his son Jacques also pushed the boundaries of exploration, but this time in real life. Here at Lake Geneva, their legacy lives on. Not only in the Foundation for the Study and Protection of Seas and Lakes in Cully, Switzerland but in the story of the world’s largest-ever tourist submarine, the Auguste Piccard.
There are a series of information boards on the promenade at Le Bouveret, a small town on the shoreline of the lake. They tell the intriguing story of the world’s first and up until now, largest tourist submarine. The Auguste Piccard was a ‘mesoscaphe’, a mid-depth submarine measuring 28 meters, and was capable of dives up to 800 meters.
Expo 64 and the diving Chimpanzees
The submarine was built for the Swiss National Exhibition, ‘Expo 64’, held in Lausanne in 1964. It transported over 33,000 people to around 150 meters beneath the murky waters of Lake Geneva. Capable of seating 40 at a time and accompanied by two glamorous hostesses, Madelaine and Monique. This was the hottest ticket in town.
Even Walt Disney was intrigued by the prospect of a glimpse beneath the surface of the lake. Perhaps the strangest sub-aqua tourists were the two chimpanzees. They made the dive with jugglers from the Knie National Circus. Or was it the catwalk show featuring the latest lace and organza fashions filmed on board for the Swiss programme ‘Madame TV’?
The sub caused a sensation. The Expo did a lively trade in souvenirs including plastic models, postcards, chocolate, ashtrays, and tins of biscuits. A record was even produced with a waltz called ‘Come into my mesoscaphe’ on the B side.
Who Built the submarine?
The idea for a scientific/tourist submarine came from Auguste Piccard, an internationally renowned Swiss physicist. His son Jacques Piccard, an oceanographer, joined him and together they conceived a design that Jacques would submit to the ‘direction’ of the Swiss Expo 64.
The aim was to make people aware of the dangers of pollution and environmental damage.
With the project initially managed by Jacques Piccard, work began in the workshops of Giovanola Freres in Monthey in 1962.
Where does the steam locomotive come in?
On completion, the launch was preceded by a test run using a steam locomotive, (it’s amazing what you can find in the lake). Baptised the Locoscaphe or Lulubelle by the locals.
The locomotive was lowered almost entirely into the lake and then brought back to the surface.
Sadly, just before the completion of the project and despite his evident competence, knowledge and experience, the Direction of Expo 64 decided to relieve Jacques Piccard of the management of the project on the pretext that he had no engineering qualifications.
When he wanted to visit the depths of the lake himself in ‘his’ submarine he was obliged to buy a ticket for 40 francs like everyone else.
Although it was only in service on Lake Geneva for 4 months and again for a couple of months in the summer of ’65 for the University of Lausanne, the sub completed over 1000 dives.
What happened to the submarine?
What can you do with an ex-submarine on Lake Geneva?
2 months after the Expo it returned to Le Bouveret and was eventually put up for sale. Various offers were received, one from a Monaco consortium whose members included Prince Rainier and the shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis.
Other offers were received from Japan, Australia, the Red Sea, and the Bahamas however the Auguste Piccard remained unsold and was transferred from Le Bouveret to a dry dock in Marseille.
The start of new submarine adventures
In 1969 it sold for 1.7 million dollars to Horton Maritime Explorations based in Chicago. It was reconfigured as the scientific sub first envisaged by Auguste Piccard in 1954. In 1975 two diesel engines were added to replace the electric batteries, giving it an autonomy of 8 days.
The sub resurfaced again in 1981 when it was moved through the Panama Canal in the hope of being rented to an oil company in the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently there was also a failed attempt to sell it as a military sub to the Iranians or the Iraqis during the Middle Eastern war. Rumours circulated that a Columbian drug cartel wanted to buy it but decided it was too slow to outrun the forces of law and order.
Instead, it played a role in the discovery of the world’s most famous sunken treasure, an estimated 17 billion dollars’ worth of gold bullion, silver, jewels and religious artifacts.
The Search for the ‘Mother of all Shipwrecks’ and the Auguste Piccard
In 1981 the submarine was rented by an American marine salvage company ‘Sea Search Armada’ in an attempt to find the famous Spanish galleon, the ‘San Jose’.
The San Jose had been leading a fleet of 17 mainly merchant ships from Panama to Cartagena in Columbia when a British warship, the ‘Expedition’ attacked her in June 1708.
The ‘Expedition’, attacking the Spanish flagship, the ‘San José’
Samuel Scott on Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Despite carrying 64 bronze cannons, disaster struck when the powder stores of the San Jose ignited, blowing the ship apart. 600 people including merchants, local gentry, servants, and sailors lost their lives. The cargo of gold, silver, and jewels destined for the coffers of Philippe V of Spain sank to the bottom of the ocean to remain undiscovered for 300 years. Until it was reputedly re-located by the Auguste Piccard.
Claim and Counter Claim
At this point, the Columbian Government stepped in and impounded the submarine. They claimed that as the San Jose lay in Columbian waters the treasure belonged to Columbia.
Enter the Spanish with a counterclaim. As the ship was a military vessel sailing under the Spanish flag, Spain had the salvage rights. Let’s add in the Peruvians who claimed that Peru was the ‘place of origin’ of most of the treasure and it, therefore, belonged to them. Oh, and let’s not forget the indigenous Bolivians who mined much of the gold.
All of these players have laid claim to this billion-dollar prize. The long-running legal battle has yet to decide who has the right to salvage the ‘San Jose’, but you can be sure, we’ll certainly get to hear about it when it does happen.
Home Sweet Home
But what of our plucky little submarine? It finally found its way to Galveston in Texas where it languished as a rusting hulk for over 20 years.
Dondui Wikimedia Commons
Eventually, a group of volunteers bought the ‘mesoscaphe’ and transported back to its birthplace, Switzerland. After several years of restoration work, it was ready to be exhibited at the Transport Museum in Lucerne, where you can still find it today.
…and the link with Star Trek?
Amazingly, there is a link to Star Trek… and to the famous Belgian cartoon strip, Tintin…
The Extraordinary Piccards
Auguste Piccard and his identical twin Jean Felix Piccard were born in 1884 in Basel, Switzerland. Auguste became a Professor of physics in Brussels, at the Free University of Brussels, in 1922 and became friends with Albert Einstein and Marie Curie.
Picture of Auguste Piccard in Deutsches Bundesarchiv for Wikimedia Commons
Here are some of his incredible exploits:
- He validated Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
- He discovered Uranium 235
- In 1931 he and a colleague, Paul Kipfer, were the first men to enter the stratosphere in a pressurised hydrogen balloon he had invented. He reached an altitude of 15,781 metres or 9.806 miles.
- He was the first man to see the curvature of the earth.
- In 1932 he broke his own world record by reaching a height of 16,201 metres in a hydrogen balloon along with fellow aeronaut, Max Cosyns.
- He adapted his design for the balloon, calling it a bathyscaphe, so that it could descend to the deepest parts of the ocean. In 1953 he and his son, Jacques, broke the world record in the bathyscaphe, ‘Trieste’ for the deepest ever dive at 3,150 meters.
- He was also a Commander of the Legion d’Honneur and received the Belgian Order of Leopold.
- His son Jacques, along with oceanographer Don Walsh, achieved a World Record for the deepest ever dive when they reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench in a bathyscaphe, at 10,916 meters or 11 kilometres.
- His grandson, Bertrand Piccard achieved the first nonstop Around the World balloon flight in the Breitling Orbiter in 1999. The longest flight in aviation history.
- Bertrand Piccard also achieved the first circumnavigation of the world in a solar powered aircraft in 2016. Flying 40,000 km without fuel with co-pilot Andre Borschberg to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.
It’s in their DNA to go beyond the obvious and achieve the impossible
But above all………..
Hergé immortalised Auguste in the famous Belgian comic strip, Tintin. He’s easily recognisable as Professor Calculus, (or Professeur Tournesol in French).
Helgi Halldórsson Wikimedia Commons
So…. the Star Trek thing?
Well, that was his identical twin brother, Jean Piccard, who became a Professor of Chemistry in Chicago. He also made an ascent into the stratosphere in a balloon with his wife Jeanette.
Their exploits so impressed Gene Rodenberry that he named the main character in his new science fiction series… Jean-Luc Picard !
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
