When the Deep Submergence System Project was established it included a highly classified program for a undersea vehicles that could descend to the deeps and perform tasks more sophisticated than those of Trieste. See subs.html But this program also required that the operational capabilities so developed be hidden from the Soviets and from everyone who did not have an "absolute need to know".
A decision was made to build a second Trieste in secret, to assign the original Trieste to the Deep Submergence Systems Project with the mission to test the equipments that would be employed on the DSRV (and eventually the NR-1). Great publicity was to be focused on the original Trieste in that mission role with the intent to keep the world oblivious world to the design, construction, development and operation of another more sophisticated craft capable of clandestine operations in the deep ocean.
Was the scheme carried out as planned. If it were it might still be against the law to reveal its operations (is there anyone alive with the authority and the knowledge to declassify?), if it were not there are other versions which are close enough to the truth that they can be revealed without needlessly distorting history or compromising security.
The picture you see here I uncovered from my personal files. It is a picture of the non- existent Trieste. My own memory is dim as to when this picture was taken and why and who the persons in the picture are. Obviously Lt. Cdr. Brad Mooney and a much younger version of 'yours truly' The Admiral appears to be the late Lawson Ramage (winner of WWII Congressional Medal of Honor) I do not recognize the other two individuals. Perhaps young Brad Mooney will help us out (although his memory may also be dim or he may not wish to acknowledge that these individuals were associated with the project) The Underwater portion of this Trieste is loaded with barnacles and other salty characteristics that attest to considerable operation at sea. The above water portion is bright and shiny and clearly identifies the Trieste as Trieste II. Well, of course, when the Scorpion was lost the Navy needed to carry out a public investigation and Trieste II quietly came out of the closet. I always wonder what the rest of the maritime world and in particular the Congress believed when this new version of Trieste appeared. It performed with distinction and at the same moment that astronauts landed on the moon Trieste landed on the hull of Scorpion - a technological feat of as great or greater complexity than the moon landing and perhaps of as great significance.
Curiously enough the Scorpion operation was conducted at about the same time as the submarine Halibut was discovering the lost Soviet submarine in the Pacific. Could it be that the intelligence folks were deliberate in their revelations of the existence of Trieste2 so as to lead the Soviets to believe that we could not have a more sophisticated capability with respect to their lost unit. Could it be that the Defense Intelligence Agency and the DIA Scientific Advisory Board consisted of a small number of dedicated and competent professionals who operated in a coordinated yet covert manner. We may never know, but we do know that it was the silent service that played a major role in securing victory in the hot war of World War II. Perhaps these same individuals were decisive in the winning of the cold war that followed. If only Fritz Harlfinger and Bernard Clarey were alive today.
Ah me! "We thank what Gods there be, that no man lives forever, that dead men rise up never and even the weariest river runs somewhere out to sea."