Commissioned on June 5, 1964, the legendary deep-ocean submersible ALVIN became the ultimate survivor of the high seas and a crown jewel of marine science. Operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the vessel has spent decades exploring the planet’s most extreme environments, famously recovering a lost hydrogen bomb and capturing the first haunting images of the Titanic shipwreck.
ALVIN’s resilience was put to the test when it survived an aggressive underwater swordfish attack and a catastrophic sinking in 1968 that left it submerged on the ocean floor for 10 months. When researchers finally recovered the vessel, they discovered the crew’s left-behind lunches were perfectly preserved by the cold, highly pressurized water. This accidental experiment provided scientists with groundbreaking, historic data on how deep-sea environments slow down organic decomposition.
