The

bathyscaphe A bathyscaphe ( or ) is a free-diving self-propelled deep-sea submersible, consisting of a crew cabin similar to a bathysphere, but suspended below a float rather than from a surface cable, as in the classic bathysphere design. The float is fi ...

''Archimède'' is a deep diving research

submersible A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of ind ...

of the French Navy. It used of hexane as the gasoline buoyancy of its float. It was designed by Pierre Willm and Georges Houot. In 1964, ''Archimède'' descended into "what was then thought to be the deepest part of the Puerto Rico Trench", which the NY Times reported as . On 21 December 2018, a dive by Victor Vescovo in the

DSV Limiting Factor A deep-submergence vehicle (DSV) is a deep-diving crewed submersible that is self-propelled. Several navies operate vehicles that can be accurately described as DSVs. DSVs are commonly divided into two types: research DSVs, which are used for ex ...

found the "true bottom" of the Atlantic Ocean to be , in the first manned descent to the deepest "verified bottom" of the Atlantic Ocean. ''Archimède'' was christened on 27 July 1961, at the French Navy base of Toulon. It was designed to go beyond , and displaced 61 tons. In October 1961, ''Archimède'' passed its first dive tests, diving to unmanned. On 27 November 1961, ''Archimède'' achieved a speed of , over a distance of at a depth of in the Mediterranean Sea. On 23 May 1962, ''Archimède'' descended to off Honshu, Japan, in the Pacific, at the Japan Deep. On 15 July 1962, ''Archimède'' descended to into the Kurile-Kamchatcha Trench, making it the second deepest dive ever, at that point in time, second only to the dive on the Challenger Deep. On 12 August 1962, ''Archimède'' descended to in the Japan Deep south of Tokyo. ''Archimède'' explored the Mid-Atlantic Ridge jointly with the submarine ''Cyana'' and submersible , in

Project FAMOUS Project FAMOUS (French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study) was the first-ever marine scientific exploration by manned submersibles of a diverging tectonic plate boundary on a mid-ocean ridge. It took place between 1971 and 1974, with a multi-natio ...

(French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study) in 1974. ''Archimède'' operated until the 1970s. It was placed on reserve in 1975, and decommissioned in 1978. Since 2001, ''Archimède'' is on display at the

Cité de la Mer The Cité de la Mer ("city of the sea") is a maritime museum in Cherbourg, France. The museum is in the cruise terminal of Cherbourg. This monument was built in 1933; it is one of the bigger Art Deco, art-deco monuments of today. History The f ...

museum in Cherbourg. ''Archimède'' was honoured with a stamp in Palau.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Archimede Bathyscaphes Submarines of France Ships built in France Deep-submergence vehicles 1961 ships fr:Bathyscaphe#Les différents bathyscaphes