FNRS-3
French bathyscaphe
The FNRS-3 or FNRS III is a bathyscaphe of the French Navy. It is currently preserved at Toulon. She set world depth records, competing against a more refined version of her design, the Trieste. The French Navy replaced her with the bathyscaphe Archimède, in the 1960s.
After damage to the FNRS-2 during its sea trials in 1948, the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) ran out of funding, and the submersible was sold to the French Navy, in 1950. She was subsequently substantially rebuilt and improved at Toulon naval base, and renamed FNRS-3. She was relaunched in 1953, under the command of Georges Houot, a French naval officer.
On 15 February 1954, she made a 4,050 metres (13,290 ft) dive 160 miles off Dakar, Senegal, in the Atlantic Ocean, beating the 1953 record of Auguste Piccard, set by the Trieste, by 900 meters. Piccard's record had been set by reaching the floor of the Mediterranean off Naples, a depth of 10,392 feet (3,167 m). The new record set by FNRS-3 was not exceeded until a workup dive by Trieste in 1959, working up to the record shattering Challenger Deep dive.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “FNRS-3” is french bathyscaphe. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through FNRS-3, French and bathyscaphe, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “french bathyscaphe” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1351333. Authority coordinates are 43.104, 5.926. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1950, 1953 and 1954.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “FNRS-3”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow FNRS-3 primary sources, FNRS-3 archive and FNRS-3 research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “FNRS-3”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “FNRS-3” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.