Vescovo's original proposal to Triton (the builder of the submarine) was essentially a steel ball on a cable. No portholes, nothing fancy, just drop him and ree

Vescovo's original proposal to Triton (the builder of the submarine) was essentially a steel ball on a cable. No portholes, nothing fancy, just drop him and reel him back up. With this proposal, he was trying to anchor the engineers (pun intended) and ensure he'd get a workable end product instead of an expensive flight of fancy that couldn't achieve the mission, and also it fulfilled what he wanted out of the exercise — he's a goal-oriented, mission-focused individual and getting himself to those faraway places was/is job one. Triton refused and engineered the viewports as well as other compromises that ensured attention was paid to the scientific uses of the submarine and its trips into the deep.