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Retired Navy Capt. Don Walsh, an explorer who in 1960 was part of a two-man crew that made the first voyage to the Mariana Trench, died at his Myrtle Point home.

Retired Navy Capt. Don Walsh, an explorer who in 1960 was part of a two-man crew that made the first voyage to the deepest part of the ocean — to the “snuff-colored ooze” at the bottom of the Pacific’s Mariana Trench — has died. He was 92.

In January 1960, Don Walsh, then a U.S. Navy lieutenant, and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard were sealed inside a 150-ton, steel-hulled bathyscaphe named the Trieste to attempt to dive nearly seven miles (11 kilometers) below the surface.

Walsh was 28 when he made the record-breaking descent to the bottom of the seven-mile deep trench off the coast of Guam in 1960. He died peacefully on November 12 at his home in Oregon.

He was one of the first explorers to dive to the deepest depths of the ocean. In 1960, Don Walsh alongside oceanographer Jacques Piccard dove into the Mariana Trench, reaching the depth of 35,814 feet