About Benthos

Benthos was founded in 1962 by Samuel O. Raymond in North Falmouth, Massachusetts, a few miles from the research faciliites at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. During its first three decades, the company placed particular emphasis on supplying underwater equipment to military and governement markets.

Early in the 1990's, in response to a decline in these markets, the company shifted its priorities to meet the growing needs of commercial markets. These markets include the geophysical industry where Benthos products and systems are used in the search for offshore oil and gas deposits, as well as scientific research and environmental markets.

In 1999, Benthos acquired the products of Datasonics, Inc. a maker of geophysical survey equipment, underwater modems, and locator devices.

In 2006, Benthos was acquired by Teledyne Technologies Incorporated and is now a proud member of the Teledyne Marine group of companies.  The company is now know as Teledyne Benthos.

A Rich History

In 2000, the first e-mail sent from a submarine traveling at speed and depth was sent to the surface using Benthos modems.

In 1998, a Benthos MiniROVER MKII system allowed archaeologists from the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum to locate, photograph, and videotape a sunken Revolutionary War gunboat commanded by Benedict Arnold.

In 1989, a team led by Dr. Robert Ballard located the German World War II battleship Bismark in deep water off the coast of France. Benthos deep sea cameras provided the world with the first pictures of the sunken ship.

In 1985, Benthos imaging and acoustic equipment was used by a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution team to discover the sunken remains of the ill-fated luxury liner Titanic.

Titanic

With the aid of Benthos ROV systems, cameras, and acoustic equipment numerous other sunken historic vessels have been located, photographed, and filmed. These include the Civil War ironclad Monitor, the 1848 British vessel Breadalbane, and the World War II aircraft carrier Yorktown.

Benthos equipment has also been instrumental in the location and recovery of widespread sunken wreckage following notable air disasters, including the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986, the crashes of Swiss Air flight 111 in 1998, Air India flight 182 in 1985, TWA flight 800 in 1998, and John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s plane in 1999.

Director James Cameron used two Benthos ROV systems known as "Big Geek" and "Little Geek" in his 1989 Academy Award-winning film "The Abyss".

In 1983, Benthos introduced the first low cost ROV system, the MiniROVER, which went on to be one of the best selling ROV systems of all time.

Glass instrument housing debuted in 1963, with patented glass flotation spheres in 1969. These remain industry standards to this day. In 2008, Benthos received a Key Partner Award from the IceCube Research Center for supplying over 5,500 glass instrument housings for the creation of the worlds largest scientific instrument detecting high-energy neutrinos that originate from colliding black holes.  The project is being constructed deep in the Antarctic ice at the South Pole.