This image is actually much older than 1934; it’s just that that is when William Beebe published it (courtesy of the New York Public Library) in his book Half Mile Down, which is both a survey of sea creatures found around the island of Bermuda and a survey of undersea exploration through history.
The Rotterdam Ship was a “proto-bathysphere,” a primitive submersible that was 72 feet long, 12 feet high, and built “sometime before 1664” with the purpose of ramming military ships. It unfortunately never managed to submerge — they hadn’t worked out the mechanism for that yet. It did earn some money for its inventor, though, as a curiosity put on display for paying customers.
I got this image (and the story) from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which is unfortunately in grave danger of going under itself unless we (this includes YOU, o reader) can step up and make a little noise or take some other steps to keep it afloat despite the sudden loss of federal funding for educational archives.