Forty years later, the question that naturally occurs is: why has no-one gone back since? To begin with, further dives were vigorously opposed by Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, a man with a lively temperament, forceful views and, most pertinently, control of the departmental chequebook. He thought underwater exploration a waste of resources and pointed out that the Navy was not a research institute. The nation, moreover, was about to become fully preoccupied with space travel and the quest to send a man to the Moon, which made deep sea investigations seem unimportant and rather old-fashioned.
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