Vescovo was the first person to dive 15 times to the deepest point in the ocean, and is one of only 70 people in history to have completed the ‘Explorer’s Grand Slam’ which involves scaling the highest peaks on each continent and skiing to the North and South poles. He also launched the ‘Five Deeps Expedition’ with the objective of visiting the deepest points in all five of the world’s oceans. Inside his ultra-deep diving submersible Limiting Factor, he completed the goal within one year, and while doing so, reached the deepest point ever recorded in the ocean. This occurred in April 2019, when he dived the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean and recorded a Guinness World Record depth of 10,935 metres.

Oceanographic Magazine (OM): Thanks for taking time to speak to us. Victor, how do you think your time in the Navy coined your adventurous spirit?

Victor Vescovo: “I think the Navy opened my eyes to a much wider world because I was deployed all over the world. I was often on ships for long periods of time. Perhaps the best thing that happened from my time in the Navy with respect to ocean exploration is that I just became very comfortable living at sea for long periods of time.”

OM: When did you first connect with the ocean? Is there one moment in your childhood that started your fascination with the ocean?

Victor Vescovo: “I don’t recall a specific instance, but I do certainly recall that my family would go to the beach when I was a very young boy. I have never been afraid of the water. In fact, even back then, I loved going into it and, as was typical with me even on land, I would tend to venture far further than I was supposed  – or was safe – to go.”

OM: In 2018, you launched the Five Deeps Expedition with the objective of visiting the deepest points in all five of the world’s oceans. What were you trying to achieve with the expedition?

Victor Vescovo: “I believe that advancing technology solves most of the problems that we have ever encountered as a species on this planet. That is something that I’m passionate about. But initially, I was a serious mountain climber for about 25 years and achieved many things that I wanted to, such as climbing Mount Everest and many other peaks. As I got a little older, I was looking for something different as mountaineering became a bit more challenging. That’s when I heard about Sir Richard Branson’s attempt to do what he called the ‘The Five Dives’ to the deepest points of all five oceans, but, his team chose some technology that wasn’t going to work very well. It was more based on carbon fibre with which we now know isn’t a great material to go into the ocean. When that project was abandoned, I thought that there was potentially an avenue to advance the state-of-the-art using a little bit more conventional technology combined with some recent advances. I did the analysis to figure out if it could be done, and it could. It was very expensive, but it was something that I personally thought that if I wasn’t going to do it, then someone should. So, I embarked on the path to not just build a new submersible that was capable of repeated diving to the very bottom of the ocean, but to align that with the mission of identifying and diving all five of the deepest places in the ocean, which had never been done before, which was very exciting technologically.”