Rob McCallum, A Stealthy Force Behind Modern Oceanographic Exploration

Rob McCallum isn’t a family title, however within the exploration world, notably oceans, he’s an enormous deal. As a founding accomplice of EYOS Expeditions, the New Zealander since 2008 has helped manage, information and execute logistics for greater than 1,000 expeditions to among the world’s remotest locations. Excessive-profile initiatives embody James Cameron’s (2012) and Victor Vescovo’s (2019-22) dives to Challenger Deep within the Mariana Trench, the bottom level on Earth practically 36,000 ft beneath sea degree; visits to dozens of deep shipwrecks, together with RMS Titanic and the Bismarck; a circumnavigation of Antarctica in an icebreaker. The checklist goes on.

Final month, McCallum’s firm helped find the deepest shipwreck ever found, the “Sammy B” (USS Samuel B Roberts), in 22,916 ft of water. Later this month, McCallum is off to assist one other dive to Challenger Deep, this time for Esri chief scientist Daybreak Wright, who will turn into the primary African American to achieve that depth. We thought it might be attention-grabbing to talk with McCallum earlier than he left for the Pacific. Following are edited excerpts from an extended cellphone dialog.

Jim Conflict: You assist all of those excessive expeditions, principally behind the scenes. Do you ever get to go down within the subs your self?

Rob McCallum: As a matter of reality, I did go to Challenger Deep. I used to be No. 18 to do it. For me, it’s all the time knowledgeable expedition, getting my shoppers to those unbelievable locations. However on this case, Victor [Vescovo] was variety sufficient to return the favor. He knew that this had been a boyhood dream for me. I’ve been a good friend of Don Walsh’s [first person to Challenger Deep, in 1960] for 30 years, sailed many occasions with him, and I wished to observe in his footsteps. When within the submersible, you notice that you’re simply the tip of the spear for an enormous engineering undertaking. We had some particular scientific issues we wished to perform down there, to maximise our backside time. Doing these issues meant loads to me.

Conflict: Once you went down, did you’re feeling any worry? I imply, the stress 7 miles beneath the floor of the Pacific is big.

McCallum: No, I felt no worry. The human mind is attention-grabbing in that it doesn’t make the leap into worry if it might probably’t sense hazard. The analogy I take advantage of is when folks sit in a business plane flying at 30,000 ft. Once they look out of the window, they don’t suppose, “Jesus Christ, it’s -55 levels on the market, there’s virtually no oxygen, the wind is 500 mph.” They appear down and say, “I can see a motorway, a city.” Nicely, that’s as a result of we will’t sense the chilly or the low air stress or the wind pace. The sub is identical. You’re sitting on this cocoon, there’s no sense of motion, no noise from the skin. And, after all, you’ll be able to’t detect a change of stress within the automobile as a result of the stress stays the identical. The sub is a really calm, quiet place.

Conflict: Okay, that is sensible. However in conditions the place you’re extra uncovered to harsh components, how do you deal with worry?

McCallum: I’ve an early background in managing emergency conditions. You study to not let worry block ahead progress. You’re acutely aware that there’s hazard, however mark it down as a danger to be managed relatively than one thing to be feared. My spouse says, “Rob, you aren’t petrified of something.” Nicely, I’m not scared, simply cautious. That’s necessary. Wing-suit divers, base jumpers, fighter pilots – and I’ve talked to all of them – want the flexibility to transcend worry, to not get caught like a deer in headlights. They should suppose clearly and calmly about the place they’re in area and time, and learn how to navigate by means of the issue.

Conflict: You went down within the Limiting Issue, the sub that Victor Vescovo owns and had constructed, and the one one on this planet now able to taking people to such depths. In a means, it’s the head of ocean engineering achievement, appropriate?

McCallum: One factor that’s attention-grabbing speaking to journalists is that all of them describe the sub as that pinnacle of sub-sea engineering. We had Jim’s [Cameron] machine, now now we have this one. I don’t see it that means in any respect. It’s really on the backside of the triangle. That is the Mannequin T Ford [laughs]. Think about what it’ll be like sooner or later? Certain, Henry Ford’s automobile was the engineering pinnacle on the time, however while you look again, it was the very starting. Every thing from then on received higher and higher. I feel that Limiting Issue would be the identical. We’ve already began work on the following technology of subs.

Conflict: Nicely, this factor already goes to Earth’s deepest level. How will you make it higher?

McCallum: I don’t need to give away something, however you might go quicker, carry extra folks, keep down longer, have higher visibility, improve payload dimension to convey extra issues again. There’s limitless potential for enchancment.

Conflict: Not too long ago, Ernest Shackelton’s Endurance ship was discovered on the backside of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. Had been you concerned in that operation?

McCallum: I used to be, again to start with. I did the unique feasibility examine in 2014, for Nationwide Geographic, then wrote the primary draft of an operational plan on learn how to discover it. However we weren’t concerned with the fellows that did discover it final 12 months.