Cameron has a great curiosity about the sea and what lies below. His deep sea expeditions include 33 trips to the Titanic wreck, and most recently, a solo dive to the lowest point on earth, the Mariana Trench. Don Walsh, a retired U.S. Navy Captain, and the late Jacques Piccard, a Swiss engineer, were the first men to successfully reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960. James Cameron’s successful solo attempt last year was the first manned trip to the spot since then.
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| Award-winning filmmaker and deep sea diver James Cameron at The Explorers Club in NYC. (photo by Elliot Severn) |
Cameron, who studied physics in college, had a team design a
high-tech vehicle for the dive, made of newly-developed materials and equipped
with lighting outside the craft that would illuminate the surrounding area. His
last words before taking the seven-mile plunge were “See you in the sunshine,” and
after spending 3 hours exploring and filming on the ocean floor, he resurfaced
successfully. Don Walsh was waiting for him above, and greeted him as he
emerged from his submersible.
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| DeepSea Challenger, built in Sydney, Australia for James Cameron's dive to the Mariana Trench in 2012 (National Geographic image) |
Cameron took with him an Explorers Club flag (No. 161) that
had been carried to the top of Mount Everest, a flag that has now been to both
the highest and lowest points on Earth. He was recently honored by The
Explorers Club for his achievement, and was interviewed by Adventurer Jim Clash
as part of his “Exploring Legends” series. In this up-close-and-personal
session, we got an inside look at Cameron’s experience.
Clash’s questions covered the historic dive and more, and
here are some highlights from that conversation:
Cameron was inspired by science fiction as a kid, and
started scuba diving as a teen. He chose the sea because he was riveted to the
pictures of subs and underwater expeditions in National Geographic, and it was
something he could actually do, where he thought the chances of becoming an
astronaut were very small.
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| James Cameron (L) and interviewer Jim Clash (R) at The Explorers Club (photo by Elliot Severn) |
“We went to the deepest place, and the only place to go
deeper was to take a backhoe.” From his vehicle, Cameron noticed skid mark at
the bottom of the sea, thought to be from the unmanned Japanese survey vessel Keiko.
He saw tiny anthropods down there, but “didn’t see any
animal tracks on the ground.” In addition to film and images, Cameron gathered
science data, including a small sediment sample which contained a large number
of bacteria genomes.
Talking about the safety of the craft, he said “You may
implode, but you’re not gonna leak.” The possibility of imploding due to
pressure is described by filmmaker Cameron as “cut to black.” The audience
roared.
Going down, Cameron’s extensive checklist was finished with
last 9,000 slow feet of descent left to go, leaving time for solitude. Asked
what he was thinking, Cameron’s response was, “It seemed like a good idea at
the time.” The audience again burst out into laughter.
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| James Cameron having a comic moment during his interview at The Explorers Club (photo by Elliot Severn) |
The conversation also covered space and the night sky:
In response to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s letter
about the appearance of the incorrect stars in the sky in a scene from
“Titanic” Cameron stated, for the record, that he has replaced the sky in that
scene with the correct stars. I’m sure this will make a lot of our fans happy!
Something I didn’t know was that Cameron was supposed to
travel to the ISS to do 3D imaging of the Earth, but after 9-11 and then the
Columbia disaster, his training was delayed, and his trip never took place.
Asked by Clash (who has a ticket for a suborbital flight on
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo) if he’d be interested in coming along, Cameron
said he’s not interested in suborbital flight. He wants the Full Monty of
orbital flight.
On the Apollo landing hoax theory, Cameron quipped, “ ‘Cuz I
know the state of technical/visual effects at the time, versus what they are
now, we COULDN’T have faked it, we couldn’t have. Now we could.”
The interview ended with a great non-exploration question:
“What is
your favorite movie that’s not yours?”
Cameron’s
answer – “The Wizard of Oz.”
After the
session, Clash opened the floor to questions from the audience. Asked by
Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter how he handles fear, Cameron said that in
addition to extensive training and testing, he invokes
the Astronaut’s prayer, “Please God, don’t let me f*ck up!”
I think we
can all relate to that in some way or another.
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| Explorers Club Vice President Constance Difede holding Flag No. 161, which has traveled to the highest and lowest points on Earth, at The Explorers Club Annual Dinner (photo by Stacey Severn) |
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