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Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss

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When I was growing up I had several heroes who sparked my interest in biology and the natural world. Among these were J. Henri Fabre, Edwin Way Teal, Roger Tory Peterson, Raymond Ditmars and of course William Beebe. All of these had their human failings certainly and Beebe was no exception. He was often given to purple prose and hyperbole, his stories did not always match the truth and he sometimes claimed scientific value for acts that were more showmanship than real science. Given all of these (I won't get into his personal life, which was not always admirable, but was his own business); Beebe had the ability to get young people especially interested in the often strange creatures that lived in the rainforest, on islands or the ocean. In his writings he fed the imagination at times when life seemed especially perilous in the depression, World War II and the following Cold War. It was during the last (in 1962) that he died on the island of Trinidad at his research station at Simla. He will always be connected in my mind with the tropical forest and the exploration of the depth of the ocean in the Bathysphere. It is the latter that is the topic of the excellent "Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss" by Brad Matsen.

The second man usually mentioned in any discussion of the Bathysphere is a young wealthy New Yorker named Otis Barton. Matsen mentions him first in this book and it is indeed appropriate that he did so. It was Barton who was instrumental in designing the Bathysphere and it was Barton who paid for it. Beebe and Barton were in many ways rivals for the acclaim that exploration of the depth of the sea would bring, but they buried their acrimony because they needed each other in order to accomplish the task they had set - the descent into the abyss to the depth of a half mile. Despite human flaws, petty jealousies, and oversized egos, the actual dives in the Bathysphere took nerve and I think true courage. It was by no means certain that they would survive the event, despite their careful planning (as was evident by an unmanned descent that ended badly). The story of their adventure, which set up later exploration by Barton, Piccard, and others, is gripping and well told in this book. In it humans for the first time saw living deep sea creatures in all their glory, where as they had only known them from pale and dead or dying specimens brought up in nets from the depths. Whatever Beebe's or Barton's faults the reader can certainly sympathize with them as they view such wonders for the first time in human history!


If you are at all excited by the exploration of our blue planet, you will find this book a great pleasure to read.

Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss is an adventure packed with all the fascination and joy of exploration that Brad Matsen's talent has always promised.

Fittingly, the book begins in Coney Island, a place where many thousands of people have discovered the terror and delight of departing from familiar, safe ground. That's where we first encounter the bathysphere, rusting in storage, a relic that once made possible one of the greatest stories in the history of Twentieth Century science and mass media. As a cunning guide to the rides, Matsen starts where we are. Then he lures us into a mind-bending world.

No human had ever witnessed the mystery and beauty of the deep ocean until the pioneering naturalist William Beebe and the inventor of the bathysphere, Otis Barton, forged their awkward partnership and plunged in during the darkest years of the Great Depression. And unlike other explorers, they brought a worldwide audience along through the new medium of radio. They broadcast live on NBC from the abyss as they sank down in a cramped, 4.5-foot steel ball with quartz-glass windows, hoping the new contraption would hold up against the millions of pounds of pressure that were pushing in around them.

The bathysphere shook and jerked around on the end of thousands of feet of cable, leaked, filled up with the odor of seasickness, and somehow kept the two men alive. Beebe brought back observations of creatures that to this day have never been seen again. He also confirmed theorists' prediction that colors would vanish one by one as depth increases, finishing with a pale, blueish luminescence that finally descends into utter blackness.

Matsen's kinship with Beebe is unmistakable. This is intimate, exciting storytelling, thoroughly researched and rooted in much more than library work. Bravo!


Brad Warren
Seattle, WA

The deep-sea expeditions of Otis Barton and William Beebe revolutionized undersea concepts and exploration - and at the height of the Depression years, when money was tight. Beebe was a famous naturalist who became obsessed with oceanography, and had his own research station off Bermuda, along with the support of many industrialists of his times. The younger Barton was heir to a fortune and had his own dreams of deep-sea exploration and adventure. Together the two opened a new world, directly observing new life in the abyss until a bitter dispute left them estranged. Descent: The Heroic Discovery Of The Abyss re-creates their adventures and discoveries.

Rebeccasreads highly recommends DESCENT by BRAD MATSEN as a fascinating time capsule of the early beginnings of oceanographic exploration, as well as a detailed narrative of scientific vision & determination set against the 20th century era of great wealth & discovery. An absorbing recreation of the life & times of Barton & Beebe, their Bathysphere & what they survived & discovered as they descended into the abyss of the Caribbean.

The reviewer below says that this book is a historical novel: it is not. This book is historical fact.

Brad Matsen is an excellent historian. Not only is Matsen' book a first rate adventure story about Beebe and Barton's explorations in the Bathysphere but he gives historical prospective on the times they lived in, including the influence of the media and the politics of science and exploration in the 1930s. If you ever wondered what it would be like to sit in a four foot metal sphere a half mile under water, read this book.

The author did a tremendous job on this book. It was very well researched and composed almost as if Matsen himself was there to witness it! The book has a decent amount of historical photos and a very detailed "Notes" section at the end. I'd highly recommend this book!

I am a reader of historical novels but this non-fiction book is as easy to read as a novel!

This is a gripping, beautifully-told true story about Otis Barton and William Beebe, the first two explorers ever to plumb the deep abyss of the ocean. A tale of daring, ambition and wonder, Descent skillfully weaves together the separate but inextricably linked lives and achievements of these two men, who needed and tolerated one another, but who ended up barely on speaking terms.

Beebe was a renowned naturalist, whose expeditions were followed by an adoring public and whose personal charm and exploits earned him high society standing-but for whom true scientific credibility proved elusive. Barton brought to the partnership the design know-how to craft the Bathysphere, a terrifyingly small steel sphere specially engineered to withstand the pressure of the deep ocean. Technology buffs and novices alike will appreciate the lucid descriptions of how this contraption was created.

But there is nothing technical or "dry" about this marine science history-adventure leaps from every page, as author Brad Matsen engagingly combines meticulous research with a storyteller's talent for suspense and fascination. This is a lively, wonderfully written book-open to any page and your eye is almost sure to land on a beautiful sentence. Engaging and informative-I couldn't put the book down. I also enjoyed learning about some of the smart, intrepid women scientists and artists who worked with Barton and Beebe on their historic dives. Reading between the lines, one gets the sense of plenty of romantic intrigue between Bathysphere descents!

Highly recommended.

Mr. Matsen is truly a great storyteller. With one notable exception the book seems a flawless execution of a historical novel with some fantastic technical detail.
My one objection, which is nitpicking, is the statement on page 207, where he states that red light has a higher frequency than blue. The exact opposite is true. The extensive reference listing for each chapter shows this man truly did some work before writing this book. This book is very readable for all who love science.