The ''FNRS-3'' or ''FNRS III'' is a

bathyscaphe A bathyscaphe () 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 floa ...

of the

French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...

. It is currently preserved at

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

. She set world depth records, competing against a more refined version of her design, the ''Trieste''. The French Navy eventually replaced her with the bathyscaphe , in the 1960s.Paine, Lincoln P. (1997). ''Ships of the World''. Houghton Mifflin. p. 188. After damage to the ''

FNRS-2 The ''FNRS-2'' was the first bathyscaphe. It was created by Auguste Piccard. Work started in 1937 but was interrupted by World War II. The deep-diving submarine was finished in 1948. The bathyscaphe was named after the Belgian Fonds Nationa ...

'' during its sea trials in 1948, the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) ran out of funding, and the submersible was sold to the French Navy, in 1950. She was subsequently substantially rebuilt and improved at Toulon naval base, and renamed ''FNRS-3''.''

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

'', 2010 Online, 9 September 2010 (accessed 9 September 2010) She was relaunched in 1953, under the command of

Georges Houot Georges Houot (29 August 1913 – 7 August 1977) was a French naval officer and commander of a bathyscaphe unit. Biography He was born in Paris and educated at the Prytanée militaire military school at La Flèche in the Pays de la Loire region. ...

, a French naval officer. On 15 February 1954, she made a dive 160 miles off

Dakar, Senegal Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 million in 2023. Dakar is situated on the Cap-Vert peninsula, the w ...

, in the Atlantic Ocean, beating the 1953 record of

Auguste Piccard Auguste Antoine Piccard (28 January 1884 – 24 March 1962) was a Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer known for his record-breaking hydrogen balloon flights, with which he studied the Earth's upper atmosphere and became the first person to ...

, set by the ''Trieste'', by 900 meters. Piccard's record had been set by reaching the floor of the Mediterranean off Naples, a depth of . The new record set by ''FNRS-3'' was not exceeded until a workup dive by ''Trieste'' in 1959, working up to the record shattering

Challenger Deep The Challenger Deep is the List of submarine topographical features#List of oceanic trenches, deepest known point of the seabed of Earth, located in the western Pacific Ocean at the southern end of the Mariana Trench, in the ocean territory o ...

dive.Paine, Lincoln P. (2000). ''Ships of Discovery and Exploration''. Mariner Books. p. 64.

References

External links

*
"13,000 Feet Under the Sea in the French Bathyscaphe"
''

Popular Mechanics ''Popular Mechanics'' (often abbreviated as ''PM'' or ''PopMech'') is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do it yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation an ...

''. May 1954. pp. 110–111. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fnrs-3 Deep-submergence vehicles Submarines of the French Navy Ships built in France Trieste-class deep-submergence vehicle Museum ships in France

See also

References

External links