Ben Franklin (PX-15) is a 130-ton oceanographic research submersible originally built in Switzerland for famed undersea explorer and scientist Jacques Piccard and most famously employed on a historic 30-day “drift mission” along the eastern seaboard of the United States in 1969. After that incredible mission, the ship was used for a few more dives, then ran aground in 1971. Eventually she was abandoned and ending up in a scrap yard. Through a series of fortunate coincidences, in 1999, Jim, then Executive Director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, was notified and subsequently, he led the crew who restored the submersible. Ben Franklin now resides in front of the Vancouver Maritime Museum.
