FNRS-2

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History
Belgium
Name	FNRS-2
Completed	1948
In service	1948
Out of service	1948
Fate	Rebuilt as FNRS-3
General characteristics
Type	Deep-submergence vehicle
Length	15 m (49 ft)
Beam	3.2 m (10 ft)
Draft	6 m (20 ft)
Installed power	1kW electric motor
Speed	0.5 knots (0.93 km/h; 0.58 mph)
Endurance	24h
Test depth	4,000 m (13,000 ft)
Complement	2

The FNRS-2 was the first bathyscaphe. It was created by Auguste Piccard. Work started in 1937 but was interrupted by World War II. The deep-diving submarine was finished in 1948. The bathyscaphe was named after the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), the funding organization for the venture. FNRS also funded the FNRS-1 which was a balloon that set a world altitude record, also built by Piccard. The FNRS-2 set world diving records, besting those of the bathyspheres, as no unwieldy cable was required for diving. It was in turn bested by a more refined version of itself, the bathyscaphe Trieste.

FNRS-2 was built from 1946 to 1948. It was damaged during sea trials in 1948, off the Cape Verde Islands.^[1] FNRS-2 was sold to the French Navy when FNRS funding ran low, in 1948. The French rebuilt and rebaptised it FNRS-3. It was eventually replaced by the FNRS-4. In February 1954 the FNRS-3 reached a depth of 4,050 metres (13,290 ft) in the Atlantic, 160 miles off Dakar, beating Piccard's 1953 record by 900 metres.^[2]