DeepFlight Challenger point of each of the world's five oceans, the Mariana Trench of the Pacific Ocean (36,201 ft), the Puerto Rico Trench of the Atlantic Ocean (28,232 ft), the Diamantina Trench of the Indian Ocean (26,401 ft), South Sandwich Trench of the Southern Ocean (23,737 ft), and Molloy Deep of the Arctic Ocean (18,399 ft). The Cheyenne yacht will be used as the mothership for the dive efforts. It was planned that Branson would pilot the sub to the Puerto Rico Trench, while Chris Welsh would pilot it for the Mariana Trench dive. Virgin Oceanic had hoped to be the first
Romanche Trench the French navy ship "La Romanche", commanded by captain Louis-Ferdinand Martial which on 11 October 1883 made soundings that revealed the trench. The boat was coming to France after a few months scientific mission near cape Horn, part of the first International Polar Year. The trench has a depth of , is long and has an average width of and allows for a major circulation of deep ocean basin water from the west Atlantic to the east Atlantic basins. Deep water flow through the trench is from west to east with a rate of 3.6 Sverdrups (million m³/s) of water.