Greetings from SEALAB author Ben Hellwarth

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SEALAB Author Ben H.

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I just met some of the good people behind ScubaBoard at DEMA 2012 in Las Vegas and was encouraged to join this lively site. My new book, "SEALAB: America's Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor," is the first-ever account of the divers and scientists behind the U.S. Navy program that pioneered saturation diving and dramatically changed the course of diving history. So with any luck I'll have something to add to the discussions here. As I was often reminded at DEMA, even many active divers know little or nothing about SEALAB, so it's always fun to spread the word about the program's achievements and legacy. . .Speaking of which, a 50th anniversary is upon us: As part of the lab experiments leading up to the first SEALAB, the first human volunteers were locked into a test chamber in Bethesda, Maryland, for a multi-day stay that began over the Thanksgiving holiday in 1962. . .
 
Welcome aboard!!!!

Looking forward to reading the book.
 
Thanks! SEALAB's written so that anyone can follow the story - Parade magazine called it "as captivating as an adventure novel" - but divers especially seem to appreciate it, which has been gratifying.
 
I enjoyed your book and have a question about the final disposition of the Sealab III habitat. You indicate it was cut up for scrap on Page 257. The book Papa Topside indicated “Sealab III would be towed to the Santa Barbara Channel to be scuttled in extremely deep water” on Page 186. Do you have any more information?

Either way, it is really sad. I was stationed on the Mark II Deep Dive System aboard the Elk River about two years after the accident. There were only a few guys left onboard who were on the Sealab III team and nobody mentioned what happed to the habitat.
 
Sad, indeed. You'd think the final SEALAB would have made it into a museum, if not the Smithsonian. The recently retired space shuttles got much better treatment.

The basic answer to your question is in my book's endnote to p. 257, on p. 372, which attributes the information about the habitat being cut up for scrap to Jim Osborn, a former Navy engineer and Sealab III aquanaut, who told me in the interview I cited that the habitat was towed back to the San Francisco Bay Area, where it was originally made, and it languished for a while at the Mare Island Naval Station. I remember him telling me that he personally gave the order to have it cut up - not that that's necessarily what he wanted to do. So, as mentioned in my endnote, "Papa Topside" apparently erred in this case, and in a few others, as I pointed out on pp. 88-89.

I was asked about the fate of Sealab III at the recent 20th anniversary conference of the Historical Diving Society USA in Santa Barbara, and told the audience I had just spoken to about SEALAB pretty much what I just described here - but I also said that if anyone happened to come across the habitat somewhere out in the Santa Barbara Channel to please let me know. . .
 
I have a paper around here somewhere on how they built the pressure vessel using explosive forming for the SE (Semi-Eliptical) heads... at Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard if I remember right. I grew up and was in High School across the Bay when Sealab II was being built. Man. was I ever bummed when I found out, after it was too late to go see it.

For others, Sealab II was remodeled into Sealab III — which has probably been recycled two or three times by now and is parked in several hundred garages over the world. :(
 
20S3LabDock.jpgA picture of Sealab III from my book, fyi. . .
 
I just bought this on my Kindle..looking forward to reading it.....
 
Welcome to the madness. Looks like I have a new book to read.
 
It's a great book. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.

Thanks.


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