As a child Otis Barton loved the ocean and dreamed of seeing the deep. He even invented a wood helmet with glass windows, enlisting the help of a friend to pump air into the helmet with a bike pump so that Otis could explore the harbor. Years later, Otis, an engineering student, teamed up with Will Beebe, the director of research at the Bronx Zoo. Beebe was intrigued by the deep ocean after diving off the Galápagos Islands, and Otis believed he could help him develop a diving tank. The resulting Bathysphere, a 5,000-lb hollow metal sphere with small windows, was barely big enough to fit the two men. They crawled inside and were lowered a terrifying 800 feet into the ocean. They persevered despite a leaky window, claustrophobia, and the constant threat of death by pressurized water if the hatch bolts were to break. The dramatic narrative, illustrated with pen-and-ink and watercolors, culminates in a double- fold-out wordless page spread showing the Bathysphere as a tiny light shining in in the midst of the vast ocean depths. (Ages 7–11)

The suspenseful, little-known true story of two determined pioneers who made the first dive into the deep ocean.

On June 6, 1930, engineer Otis Barton and explorer Will Beebe dove into the ocean inside a hollow metal ball of their own invention called the Bathysphere.

They knew dozens of things might go wrong. A tiny leak could shoot pressurized water straight through the men like bullets! A single spark could cause their oxygen tanks to explode! No one had ever dived lower than a few hundred feet...and come back. But Otis and Will were determined to become the first people to see what the deep ocean looks like.

This suspenseful story from acclaimed author Barb Rosenstock with mesmerizing watercolors by award-winning artist Katherine Roy will put you right in the middle of the spine-tingling, record-setting journey down, down into the deep.