You’d think that becoming the first human to reach the deepest point of the ocean, explorer Victor Vescovo would have crossed ‘conquering oceans’ off his to-do list, but in fact it’s inspired him to put his weight behind an even bigger mission: to find out what lies beneath the waves. In an age when humans have reached all corners of the globe, unlocking the mysteries of the ocean is the final frontier. “I truly do believe it is the last great, true exploration on planet Earth,” he says, as we sit down to talk at a Premier Inn just outside London's Paddington.
The millionaire financier is in town to discuss his latest project called Ocean Mapper: a vessel designed to continually map the world’s oceans. Big splashy press launches at fancy hotels are clearly not Vescovo’s MO - instead, he prefers to keep the focus on the mission itself, sketching diagrams in my notebook as he explains the concept - and it later becomes clear why.
Inspiration for the vessel, he tells me, first came to him during his Five Deeps expedition that took him to the deepest points of the Pacific, Indian, Southern, Atlantic and Arctic oceans in a prototype submersible in 2019. When he started planning the dives, he realised he did not have detailed enough charts. “I had to install the most powerful sonar available to a civilian on my ship so that we could actually figure out where to dive,” he says.
Realising the world's oceans needed better maps, Vescovo enlisted designer Espen Øino to build a 24-metre vessel which would map the sea floor 300 days a year using the very latest in sonar technology. “We are hoping that it can map two million square kilometres per year,” he says. Although expedition vessels currently conduct mapping as part of their scientific research, there are no vessels dedicated solely to charting. “This single ship will map 50 to 100% per cent of what all other ships in the world combined have done.”
It’s an ambitious feat, not just because of the sheer size of the project. “It's very difficult, I think, for human beings to get a sense of scale - but the ocean is more than twice as large as all the land on Earth. It's 71 per cent of the planet,” he says.
One vessel would take 65 years to complete the task alone, and only in deep water – for reasons Vescovo will explain later – but the Texan businessman isn't deterred. His solution is to build a vessel that’s radically more affordable - around $6 million, a fraction of the cost of today’s expedition ships. This means it could be bought, plug-in-and-play-style, by governments, academic institutions and philanthropic organisations. Instead of one boat, there could be a fleet.
“With deep ocean mapping, the cost to map with these very big, expensive expedition ships could have been anywhere from $15 to $30 a square kilometre,” he reasons. “At that price, it's not really that attractive for organisations or governments to commission large scale mapping initiatives. But if you could get that cost down to two or $3 per square kilometre…you know, eyebrows will start going up.”
His private equity career gives him confidence that his money-minded approach will resonate with wealthy individuals who have an explorer urge and want to contribute to the greater good. For that reason, the vessel will be not only cheap to buy but also cheap to run. Vescovo’s boat would have a crew of one, operating semi-autonomously to chart the ocean continuously for two weeks at a time. Instead of adopting greener alternatives like hydrogen or ammonia, the boat will rely on “more reliable” twin diesel engines, optimised to run at 10 knots to avoid interfering with the sonar gondola. Sonar has governed the design of the bow too, which has been shaped to minimise wave-generated bubbles that could disrupt its performance.
But why build a boat and not an autonomous drone powered by AI? Vescovo explains it is cheaper and safer to have human input than invest millions in technology. It also means he can carry a bigger, more powerful sonar, he adds.
“It will be a semi autonomous craft with a crew of one, basically a caretaker,” he explains. The boat will maintain a continuous presence on the ocean for upwards of 300 days a year and have all the ‘creature comforts’ for one crew member to sail two-week shifts.
It was a brief Øino and his team couldn’t refuse. Busy putting final touches on the herculean 194.9-metre expedition yacht REV Ocean, Ocean Mapper, although minuscule in comparison, presented"an inspiring challenge, bringing together efficiency, innovation and purpose to help unlock the secrets of our planet’s uncharted depths". "[We are] proud and honoured to be part of this exceptional project, driven by a scientific and noble purpose," the design firm says.
It stands to reason that the more we know about the underwater world, the better we will look after it. Better maps will give marine geologists more insight around plate tectonics and the Earth's crust, which in turn could help them predict eruptions and tsunamis. Knowing how topology affects ocean currents will help meteorologists and climate experts create more accurate weather forecasts and marine scientists understand climate change’s effects on marine life.
Better data will also improve navigation and prevent costly accidents - in 2021 a $3 billion US nuclear submarine had a near miss and bumped into an undersea mountain. “In some areas of French Polynesia, for example, the only [maps] we have available are the ones that were taken with lead weight soundings by Captain Cook and his crew. It's just shocking,” says Vescovo.
With tank testing completed in Norway, Vescovo is now at the shopping for a shipyard stage, a task which has proved harder than he thought. The project is too small for major European yards, and luxury yacht brands’ markup is too high. He's now exploring options in Asia, aiming for delivery in 2028.
Another challenge his team is wrestling with is the three different levels of the sea, each of which come with their own unique issues. Whereas you'd think that the deepest depths (over 1,000 metres) would be the hardest to map, shallow coastal areas (under 30 metres) and the depths between 30 and 1,000 metres are where sonar doesn’t work as well. “Sonar beams spread the deeper you go. So [with deep water] you can get a height advantage, so to speak - you just need a very powerful sonar to be able to probe that deep," Vescovo explains.
Using sonar on shallower water, you get narrow views of the coastal sea floor and it becomes harder to piece together a bigger picture. Recent satellite-derived bathymetry technology (SDB) can be a useful alternative in coastal areas under 30 metres where the water is clear enough. Where it's not, Vescovo is looking at drones and combining them with LiDAR, a form of lasers that can actually penetrate with blue green lasers a little bit deeper.
The real problem is the middle zone - between 30 and 1,000 metres, where you can't see deep enough to characterise the bottom. To overcome this hurdle, Vescovo’s team are looking at ways to increase the horizontal width of the scanning device by using multiple drones that operate off of the vessel, taking their own sonar readings along a certain path. "In a way, drones, with their incredible precision and their increasing capabilities, may be able to synthetically create a much wider sonar aperture. This is a concept that I'm trying to flesh out and actually experiment with over the next year,” he says
Having pushed the limits of innovation with his descent into the Mariana Trench - the deepest point in the ocean - Vescovo is well accustomed to navigating complex technological challenges, but the one obstacle that has vexed him throughout his career is governments. “It shocked me during my Five Deeps expedition how different the policies are all over the world with respect to granting access to scientists,” he observes. While some countries are open, he says, others are extremely protective, viewing it as a potential national security issue. “Satellites take images from space and map out cities and military bases, but when it comes to the sea floor, all of a sudden people get extremely nervous.”
And what will we find when his ship finally sets sail? Here Vescovo’s eyes light up. “I don't know, but that's what makes it exciting!” he laughs. “It could be incredibly boring, or it could be one of the greatest maritime discoveries of the sea floor ever. No one knows - but that's why you do it. You go out and turn the flashlight on in the dark room.”
Mapping the ocean is, without question, the final piece in understanding our planet, he adds. "How is it that we have complete marked maps of the Moon and Mars, but we still do not have maps of our own ocean?" he says. "That is a big motivator for me and people like me, we just have this intense sense of curiosity...”
Read More/On board with Victor Vescovo, owner of DSSV Pressure Drop