[jonathankoren]

Reminds me of the story of the first crewed submersible to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. During the descent there was a loud boom, like some something massive broke. After recovering from the shock, they decided to continue the dive, because if it was something important, they would have already been dead.

[selimthegrim]

Did they find out what it was?

[civilitty]

> At 30,000 ft. a sharp crack rang through the ship, shaking it violently. The water pressure outside was more than 6 tons per sqare inch., and even a slight fracture in the hull would have meant certain death. It proved to be only an outer Plexiglas windowpane which had splintered under the pressure. The inner hull remained watertight. "A pretty hairy, experience," admitted Walsh.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070202144233/http://bjsonline....

[bombcar]

“If you hear a strange noise, remain calm. If it had been bad you would be dead before you heard it.”

[jacquesm]

Pretty gutsy to continue after that rather than to go back up and investigate what it was first.

[sixQuarks]

No kidding. I would have insisted on going back up, I admit I'm not cut out for adventure at this scale.

[wnkrshm]

Don Walsh has been on the Deep Sea Podcast a few times, I can recommend it for anyone interested.

[srvmshr]

For the Trieste, the bang came from a crack in the plexiglass visor. It was reinforced to several inches of thickness.