Deep sea explorer Don Walsh, part of 2-man crew to first reach deepest point of ocean, dies at 92

By MARK THIESSEN
Associated Press

Retired Navy Capt. Don Walsh, an explorer who in 1960 was part of a two-man crew that made the first voyage to the deepest part of the ocean in the Mariana Trench has died. He was 92. His daughter Elizabeth says he died Nov. 12 at his home in Myrtle Point, Oregon. In January 1960, Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard were sealed inside a 150-ton bathyscaphe named Trieste. The two men descended nearly 7 miles to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, the deepest point of the Earth’s oceans. When they reached the seafloor, they shook hands.