Donald Walsh grew up near San Francisco in the 1930s. Among his earliest memories is the mega-construction project he saw from his home in the Berkeley hills.
唐纳德·沃尔什上世纪30年代在旧金山附近长大。他的最早期记忆包括从他的伯克利山的家中观望旧金山一项庞大的建设工程。
"Namely, the Golden Gate Bridge," he says. "And I used to watch the ships go out over the horizon. I was seven or eight years old and from that age on I really got keen at going to the sea and knowing about the ocean."
他说：“当时在那里建设的是金门大桥。我看着各式各样的船从旧金山海湾驶出，向西航行，消失在西方的地平线下。我当时一个劲地纳闷，不知道那边究竟有什么。大约就是从那个时候开始，是我大约七、八岁的时候，我开始对海洋产生了兴趣，想探索海洋。”
Early dream
Walsh graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1954. A chance assignment in 1958 led him to the Trieste.
沃尔什1954年从美国海军学院毕业。1958年，他被分配到特里亚斯特号潜水艇执行任务。
He tested the free-diving self-propelled submersible — one of only two in existence at the time — on increasingly deep dives off the California coast. He was told of a plan to take the bathyscaphe to the deepest part of the ocean, roughly 11,500 meters or deeper than Mt. Everest is high.
当时，世界上只有两艘那样的深海潜艇。他的任务是在加利福尼亚外海对那种可以自行推进、自由下潜的潜水艇进行试验。试验下潜的深度越来越深。沃尔什说：“后来，他们告诉我，他们计划把潜水艇拖到关岛，让它下潜到海洋最深处，下潜到大约7英里深的海底。”
"That really got my attention because I knew I was going to be a part of it," says Walsh.
“这一下子让我警醒起来。我知道我会参加那次任务。”
The Trieste is now on permanent display at the Naval Museum in Washington. The bathyscaphe is over 16 meters long, and its gasoline-filled flotation chamber's deck, rails, and conning tower make it look a bit like a submarine.
特里亚斯特号现在已经成为华盛顿的海军博物馆的永久展品。这艘深海潜艇长16米多，有扶手，有了望塔，看上去像是普通潜艇。
"Basically, it's an underwater balloon. You've got two parts to it: You've got the balloon here — which is this long cylindrical object — and that's filled with a lighter-than-water substance, which is aviation gasoline," Walsh explains. "Oil floats on water, and so you get the buoyancy or lift. Then, beneath the balloon you have a cabin for the fragile humans."
沃尔什说：“它基本上应当说是一个水下的气球。它有两部分。一部分是气球，就是这长筒状的物体，里面充满了比水轻的物质，是航海汽油。油是漂浮在水上的，这样，潜艇就有了浮力。在气球下面是一个舱室，用来装载脆弱的人。”
History-making dive
That cabin is a 14-ton spherical steel capsule only two meters in diameter, with a single, half-meter-wide circular plastic window for viewing. There is just enough room for two people. Walsh was joined on Trieste's historic dive by co-pilot Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard — whose father, Auguste Piccard, had designed the craft.
舱室是一个14吨重的钢球，直径只有两米，上面有一个直径半米的塑料窗可以向外了望。舱室很小，只能容纳两个人。跟沃尔什一道参加特里亚斯特号历史性沉潜的共同驾驶员是瑞士科学家雅克·皮卡尔。特里亚斯特号是他的父亲奥格斯特·皮卡尔设计的。
On Jan. 23, 1960, the two men took the Trieste to the deepest point in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench, a ravine called Challenger Deep.
1960年1月23号，他们两人驾驶特里亚斯特号沉潜到太平洋马里亚纳海沟的最深处。
The success of that mission opened the door for deep sea exploration.
他们的成功沉潜为海底探险活动打开了大门。
Walsh grabbed an opportunity that others would later follow. "We do see bits of our DNA all over in today's underwater vehicles, both manned and unmanned, because [of] the things that we developed. Remember, everything we did was a first, not because we were pioneers or inventors, but it is literally, necessity is the mother of invention. We needed something, we had to invent it."
沃尔什谦逊地表示，他只是抓住了一个机会。后来人接踵而至：“我们确实是在今天有人驾驶和无人驾驶的各种深海潜艇上看到我们当年的影子。因为很多东西是我们当年开发的。要记住，我们当年做的所有的事情都是开天辟地第一次。倒不是因为我们是什么先驱者或发明家，而是需要逼着我们发明。我们需要什么东西，我们就只好去发明什么。”
Distinguised career
Over his long naval career, Walsh served in both the Korean and Vietnam wars, commanded a submarine and worked as a policy advisor and assistant to the secretary of the Navy.
沃尔什长期在海军服役，参加过朝鲜战争和越南战争，指挥过潜艇，担任过海军部长的政策顾问和助理。
When he retired from the Navy in 1975, he accepted a position at the University of Southern California where he founded and directed the Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies and was a professor of ocean engineering.
他1975年退休，随后接受了南加州大学的一个职位。沃尔什说：“我在那里建立了一个新的研究院，专门研究海洋和海岸。我拥有海洋研究的学术学位，官职是院长。”
Walsh spent eight years in academia. The retired Navy captain continued to pursue his passions as a scuba diver, private pilot and explorer, participating in dozens ocean dives and expeditions to the polar regions.
沃尔什也是海洋工程学终身教授。他在学术界工作了8年。这位退休海军舰长后来继续追求他的潜水爱好。他还是私人飞机驾驶员、探险家，参加过几十次海洋深潜活动，以及极地探险活动。
Still exploring
Exploration, he says, has been central to his life.
"Exploration is curiosity acted upon," Walsh says. "People can look at things and be curious about them, but if you are an explorer you want to know why and how and maybe develop an experiment to test the hypothesis." He says in his life, "It [has] always being able to look around the next corer and see what's going on."
沃尔什说：“按照我的定义，探险就是付诸行动的好奇。人们可以看到什么东西，并产生好奇心。但是，假如你是一个探险家，你就想弄清楚为什么会有这样的东西，以及这样的东西是如何运转的。或许，你还会提出一种试验，检验你的假说。对我来说，探险就是刨根问底，弄清楚到底是怎么回事。”
Still vibrant at 78, Walsh lives on the Oregon coast and runs his own consulting business.
沃尔什今年78岁了，依然充满活力。他住在俄勒冈沿海地区，拥有自己的咨询公司。
He was in Washington recently to pick up two awards — the Navy Distinguished Public Service Medal and the Hubbard Award from National Geographic, the Society's highest honor given for distinction in exploration, discovery and research.
他最近访问华盛顿，接受了两项嘉奖。一项是海军的杰出公共服务奖章，一项是国家地理学会的最高荣誉奖哈巴德奖。
No human has returned to the deepest part of the ocean, although remotely operated vehicles have.
自从沃尔什和皮卡尔下潜到马里亚纳海沟最深处之后，还没有其他人下潜到那里，尽管有一些遥控的潜水艇到过那里。
Walsh applauds those advances in technology, but laments that most of the world's deep oceans remain unexplored and that only a handful of vessels — manned or unmanned — exist to do the job.
沃尔什赞扬这些技术进步，但同时感叹世界上最深的洋底依然没有人探索，而且载人和无人驾驶的深海潜艇屈指可数。 |