The Ben Franklin
Grumman/Piccard PX-15

At 8:56 P.M. (EDT) July 14, 1969, Grumman Aerospace Corporation's research submarine Ben Franklin slipped beneath the surface of the Atlantic off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida.

Its mission: to investigate the secrets of the Gulf Stream as it drifted northward at depths of 600-2,000 feet; to learn the effects on man of a long-duration, closed-environment stressful voyage; to demonstrate the engineering-operational concepts of longterm submersible operation; and to conduct other scientific oceanographic studies.

This longest privately-sponsored undersea experiment of its kind ended more than 30-days and 1,444 nautical miles later, when the Franklin and its crew of six surfaced some 300 miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, at 7:58 A.M. August 14, 1969.
Both craft and crew were A-OK.

As they say, the rest is history.....a history that largely remains untold.

General Specifications:

Photographs and Drawings

• Layout of the Ben Franklin
• Cutaway drawing of the Ben Franklin from Popular Science
• External drawing of the Ben Franklin
• Photos of the Ben Franklin in 1969, 1999 and 2002
• Route of the Ben Franklin's thirty day Gulf Stream Drift Mission
• Mission patch of the Ben Franklin Drift Mission

Links to More Information about the Ben Franklin, the Piccards and the Gulf Stream:

• Vancouver Maritime Museum - Current home of the Ben Franklin
• The Ben Franklin returns to Vancouver
• From Outer Space to Deep Sea - temporary exhibition about the Piccard familiy at Musee du Leman
• Famous submarine anchored outside Maritime Museum - story from the Vancouver Courier Feb 2, 2000
• Vancouver Courier Story on delays in the restoration of the Ben Franklin
• Vancouver Courier Story on painting of the Ben Franklin
• The Ben Franklin Sails Again By Christopher Pollon
• Vancouver Maritime Museum - Annual Review and 2000 Operating Grant Request
• Historic Naval Ships Association
• A small history of Swiss submarines in PDF format
• Viaggi al Fondo Degli Oceani
• Our First Space Station - NASA saw the Ben Franklin as a space station prototype.
• The Sun Beneath the Sea - by Jacques Piccard
• Amazing Century of the Piccards
• Journey to the Ocean Floor - PBS documentary
• La fondation de Jacques Piccard and a translated version
• Mesoscaphe Ben Franklin and a story in Italian about the mission
• Images of the Auguste Piccard today
• Video of the Auguste Piccard from Expo 64
• Rapatriement du mesoscaphe "Auguste-Piccard" and a translated version
• August Piccard and an album of underwater exploration
• Bertrand Piccard website
• Ben Franklin and the Gulf Stream and The Remarkable Ocean World
• The Mysteries of Trieste - the Bathyscaphs Trieste and Trieste II
• LIVING ALOFT: Human Requirements for Extended Spaceflight
• Look at the bigger maritime heritage picture
• Navicula Maritime Resources including stamps of the Ben Franklin
• Ancient Bathyscaphes
• "Each Swiss lake should have its submarine" and a translated version
• Breaking the Depth Barrier - the dive of the Trieste
• Jacques Piccard from Everything.com
• Designs for the Deep Stamps from Palau featuring the Ben Franklin
• Saved From the Scrap Heap article from Nickel Magazine PDF version
• Little known NASA Project story with pictures from Marshall Space Flight Center about the Ben Franklin
• Development of Deep Submersible Vehicles in the U.S. 1958-1994
• The History of American Deep Submersible Operations
• Ben Franklin Mission is Finally Getting its Due article from the Northrop Grumman Newsletter PDF format
• Manned Submersibles Committee of the Marine Technological Society
• 400 Years of Subs
• Interview with Bertrand Piccard

gene carl feldman (gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov) (301) 286-9428