On 6 March 2009, an era in Navy undersea operations ended when the Deep Submersible Rescue Vehicle Mystic (DSRV-1) was retired at San Diego. With that event, more than a half-century of U.S. Navy manned deep submersible operations was over.
The Navy's first manned vehicle was the bathyscaph Trieste. Built in 1953, it was purchased from Professor Auguste Piccard of Switzerland in early 1958. At the time it was one of only two deep submersibles in the world.
Completed in early 1964 at Mare Island in San Diego, Trieste II was placed on board USNS Francis X. McGraw (T-AK241) and shipped, via the Panama Canal, to Boston.
Commanded by Lt Comdr. John B. Mooney Jr., Trieste II conducted dives in the vicinity of the loss site of Thresher – operations commenced by the first Trieste the year before. She recovered bits of wreckage, positively fixing the remains as that of the lost Thresher, in September 1964.
Even though the Navy no longer operates manned submersibles, they continue to be used worldwide for support of oceanographic research. Gone but not forgotten, the Trieste and Trieste II are museum pieces in Washington, D.C., and Keyport, Washington.
USS Sturgeon (SSN-637), was the lead ship of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarines. She was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sturgeon.
What a great day! It's our 29th wedding anniversary and I get to look at submarines. I'm a Navy girl!
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