What is ONR’s history in the field of underwater search?
The Office of Naval Research has pursued research projects that enhance deep-underwater search capability since the 1950s, within a decade of its founding. During that time, in cooperation with Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institution, ONR supported the work of Bruce Heezen, who produced the famous Heezen-Tharp map of the ocean floor. In 1960, ONR teamed with Woods Hole to build three submersibles, one of which later was named Alvin. Also in 1960, ONR sponsored a historic descent by a Navy oceanographer, Lt. Don Walsh, and ocean engineer Jacques Piccard, to a depth of 35,800 feet in the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench aboard the deep submergence vehicle Trieste. In 1963, Trieste was employed to search for the lost nuclear-powered submarine Thresher. Alvin assisted in the 1966 search for a lost hydrogen bomb in waters off Spain, and has subsequently been used for many search missions at depths beyond 13,000 feet. In the mid-1960s, ONR organized and led the Navy’s Man-in-the-Sea prog
