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  Sealab: America's Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor (Ben Hellwarth)

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Author Topic:   Sealab: America's Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor (Ben Hellwarth)
FFrench
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Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 12-29-2011 01:08 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for FFrench     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I just read this page about this new Sealab book - if anyone comes across it, it would be interesting to know if there is much in there about Scott Carpenter's involvement in the project. Thanks.
Sealab: America's Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor
by Ben Hellwarth

SEALAB is the underwater Right Stuff: the story of how a U.S. Navy program sought to develop the marine equivalent of the space station — and forever changed man’s relationship to the sea.

While NASA was trying to put a man on the moon, the U.S. Navy launched a series of daring experiments to prove that divers could live and work from a sea-floor base. When the first underwater “habitat” called Sealab was tested in the early 1960s, conventional dives had strict depth limits and lasted for only minutes, not the hours and even days that the visionaries behind Sealab wanted to achieve — for purposes of exploration, scientific research, and to recover submarines and aircraft that had sunk along the continental shelf. The unlikely father of Sealab, George Bond, was a colorful former country doctor who joined the Navy later in life and became obsessed with these unanswered questions: How long can a diver stay underwater? How deep can a diver go?

Sealab never received the attention it deserved, yet the program inspired explorers like Jacques Cousteau, broke age-old depth barriers, and revolutionized deep-sea diving by demonstrating that living on the seabed was not science fiction. Today divers on commercial oil rigs and Navy divers engaged in classified missions rely on methods pioneered during Sealab.

Sealab is a true story of heroism and discovery: men unafraid to test the limits of physical endurance to conquer a hostile undersea frontier. It is also a story of frustration and a government unwilling to take the same risks underwater that it did in space.

Ben Hellwarth, a veteran journalist, interviewed many surviving participants from the three Sealab experiments and conducted extensive documentary research to write the first comprehensive account of one of the most important and least known experiments in U.S. history. His compelling narrative covers the story from its scrappy origins in Dr. Bond’s Navy laboratory, through harrowing close calls, historic triumphs, and the mysterious tragedy that brought about the end of Sealab.

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (January 10, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 0743247450
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743247450

Larry McGlynn
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Posts: 1255
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Jul 2003

posted 12-29-2011 05:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Larry McGlynn   Click Here to Email Larry McGlynn     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Looks like an interesting book to read.

Francis, did I ever tell you about my experiences in diving the ...?

The only problem is one of the authors who reviewed it wrote Shadow Divers. One of the bigger crocks of crap ever written.

FFrench
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Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 12-29-2011 06:03 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for FFrench     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks, Larry. Fortunately, a book reviewer is not generally an indicator of content quality.

And yes, you did... over, and over, and over...

FFrench
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Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 02-29-2012 11:02 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for FFrench     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I see that the writer is doing a talk and book signing here in San Diego soon.

Larry McGlynn
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Posts: 1255
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Jul 2003

posted 02-29-2012 06:26 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Larry McGlynn   Click Here to Email Larry McGlynn     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I did read the book and this author got it right. A very well researched treatise on the Golden Age of Undersea Exploration.

It reminds me of the time when I was 293 feet down on a newly found wreck...

Francis, you can fill in the blanks.

FFrench
Member

Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 03-29-2012 11:06 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for FFrench     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I went to the talk and book signing last night. Being La Jolla, where so much of the story took place, it wasn't too much of a surprise to find seven Sealab veterans in the audience, who also had fun anecdotes.

Hellwarth played some interesting film footage, including Scott Carpenter playing and singing "Goodnight Irene" while breathing a part-helium mix...

Jay Chladek
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Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007

posted 03-30-2012 01:44 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jay Chladek   Click Here to Email Jay Chladek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Larry, just don't start saying... By this time my lungs were aching for air

BMacKinnon
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Posts: 230
From: Waterford, MI. USA
Registered: Jul 2007

posted 03-30-2012 03:42 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for BMacKinnon   Click Here to Email BMacKinnon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
There is also another great book on Sealab: Sea Dwellers: The Humor, Drama and Tragedy of the U.S. Navy SEALAB Programs by Bob Barth with forward by Scott Carpenter.

It is available from the Man in the Sea Museum in Panama City Beach, FL.

Bob Barth was one of the four divers on Sealab I. Scott Carpenter was a diver on Sealab II.

A neat museum and if you got to Scott Carpenters website, there is a photo of myself in front of the first Sealab that still exists at the museum. The museum is in need of some updating but they do have a lot of unique artifact there realted to undersea exploration.

FFrench
Member

Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 03-30-2012 10:35 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for FFrench     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks Brad. Indeed, Barth and Carpenter were two of the most-discussed names at the talk the other night. I'm looking forward to visiting that museum some day.

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