SEALAB

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SEALAB
Sealab 1.jpg
SEALAB I
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TypeResearch Station

SEALAB I, II, and III were experimental underwater habitats developed and deployed by the United States Navy during the 1960s to prove the viability of saturation diving and humans living in isolation for extended periods of time. The knowledge gained from the SEALAB expeditions helped advance the science of deep sea diving and rescue, and contributed to the understanding of the psychological and physiological strains humans can endure. [1]

Contents

United States Navy Genesis Project

Dr. (Captain) George F. Bond, senior medical officer and principal investigator for the SEALAB I and II experiments. "Scientists in the Sea" program (cropped to Capt George Bond).jpg
Dr. (Captain) George F. Bond, senior medical officer and principal investigator for the SEALAB I and II experiments.

Preliminary research work was undertaken by George F. Bond, who named the project after the Book of Genesis, which prophesised humans would gain dominion over the oceans. Bond began investigations in 1957 to develop theories about saturation diving. Bond's team exposed rats, goats, monkeys, and human beings to various gas mixtures at different pressures. By 1963 they had collected enough data to test the first SEALAB habitat. [2]

At the time, Jacques Cousteau and Edwin A. Link were pursuing privately funded saturation diving projects to study long-term underwater living. Link's efforts resulted in the first underwater habitat, occupied by aquanaut Robert Sténuit in the Mediterranean Sea at a depth of 61 m (200 ft) for one day on September 6, 1962. Cousteau's habitats included Conshelf I, with a 2-person crew at a depth of 10 m (33 ft) near Marseilles, placed on September 14, 1962, and Conshelf II, placed in the Red Sea at depths of 11 and 27 m (36 and 89 ft) on June 15, 1963. Later that year, the Kennedy administration decided to open a new "race" frontier, directing the navy to begin the SEALAB program. [2]

SEALAB I

SEALAB I being lowered off Bermuda in 1964 SEALAB I is lowered near Argus Island Tower in 1964.jpg
SEALAB I being lowered off Bermuda in 1964

SEALAB I was commanded by Captain Bond, [3] who became known as "Papa Topside". SEALAB I proved that saturation diving in the open ocean was viable for extended periods. The experiment also offered information about habitat placement, habitat umbilicals, humidity, and helium speech descrambling. [4]

SEALAB I was lowered off the coast of Bermuda on July 20, 1964 to a depth of 192 feet (59 m) below the ocean surface. It was constructed from two converted floats and held in place with axles from railroad cars. The experiment involved four divers (LCDR Robert Thompson, MC; Gunners Mate First Class Lester Anderson, Chief Quartermaster Robert A. Barth, and Chief Hospital Corpsman Sanders Manning), who were to stay submerged for three weeks. The experiment was halted after 11 days due to an approaching tropical storm. [4] SEALAB I demonstrated the same issues as Conshelf: high humidity, temperature control, and verbal communication in the helium atmosphere. [2]

The astronaut and second American to orbit the Earth, Scott Carpenter, was scheduled to be the fifth aquanaut in the habitat. Carpenter was trained by Robert A. Barth. Shortly before the experiment took place, Carpenter had a scooter accident on Bermuda and broke a few bones. The crash ruined his chances of making the dive. [5]

SEALAB I is on display at the Man in the Sea Museum, in Panama City Beach, Florida, near where it was initially tested offshore before being deployed. It is on outdoor display. [6] Its metal hull is largely intact, though the paint faded to a brick red over the years. [7] The habitat's exterior was restored as part of its 50th anniversary, and now sports its original colors. [8]

SEALAB II

SEALAB II above surface SEALAB II.jpg
SEALAB II above surface
Tuffy the dolphin delivered supplies to SEALAB II Tuffy.jpg
Tuffy the dolphin delivered supplies to SEALAB II

SEALAB II was launched in 1965. [3] It was nearly twice as large as SEALAB I with heating coils installed in the deck to ward off the constant helium-induced chill, and air conditioning to reduce the oppressive humidity. Facilities included hot showers, a built-in toilet, laboratory equipment, eleven viewing ports, two exits, and refrigeration. It was placed in the La Jolla Canyon off the coast of Scripps Institution of Oceanography/UCSD, in La Jolla, California, at a depth of 205 feet (62 m). On August 28, 1965, the first of three teams of divers moved into what became known as the "Tilton Hilton" (Tiltin' Hilton, because of the slope of the landing site). The support ship Berkone hovered on the surface above, within sight of the Scripps pier. The helium atmosphere conducted heat away from the divers’ bodies so quickly temperatures were raised to 30 °C (86 °F) to ward off chill. [2]

Each team spent 15 days in the habitat, but aquanaut/former astronaut Scott Carpenter remained below for a record 30 days. In addition to physiological testing, the 28 divers tested new tools, methods of salvage, and an electrically heated drysuit. [8] [9] They were aided by a bottlenose dolphin named Tuffy from the United States Navy Marine Mammal Program. Aquanauts and Navy trainers attempted, with mixed results, to teach Tuffy to ferry supplies from the surface to SEALAB or from one diver to another, and to come to the rescue of an aquanaut in distress. [10] [11] [12] When the SEALAB II mission ended on 10 October 1965, there were plans for Tuffy also to take part in SEALAB III. [13] [14]

A sidenote from SEALAB II was a congratulatory telephone call that was arranged for Carpenter and President Lyndon B. Johnson. Carpenter was calling from a decompression chamber with helium gas replacing nitrogen, so Carpenter sounded unintelligible to operators. [15] The tape of the call circulated for years[ when? ] among Navy divers[ who? ] before it was aired on National Public Radio in 1999. [16] [17]

In 2002, a group of researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network boarded the MV Kellie Chouest and used a Scorpio ROV to find the site of the SEALAB habitat. [18] This expedition was the first return to the site since the habitat was moved. [18]

SEALAB III

With naval research funding constrained by Vietnam War combat requirements, [2] it was four years later before SEALAB III used the refurbished SEALAB II habitat placed in water three times deeper. Five teams of nine divers were scheduled to spend 12 days each in the habitat, testing new salvage techniques and conducting oceanographic and fishery studies. [19] [20] Preparations for such a deep dive were extensive. In addition to many biomedical studies, work-up dives were conducted at the U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit at the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard. These “dives” were not done in the open sea, but in a special hyperbaric chamber that could recreate the pressures at depths as great as 1,025 feet (312 m) of sea water.

SEALAB III, artist's impression SEALAB III.jpg
SEALAB III, artist's impression

According to John Piña Craven, the U.S. Navy's head of the Deep Submergence Systems Project of which SEALAB was a part, SEALAB III "was plagued with strange failures at the very start of operations". [21] USS Elk River (IX-509) was specially fitted as a SEALAB operations support ship to replace Berkone; but the project was 18 months late and three million dollars over budget when SEALAB III was lowered to 610 feet (190 m) off San Clemente Island, California, on 15 February 1969. SEALAB team members were tense and frustrated by these delays, and began taking risks to make things work. When a poorly sized neoprene seal caused helium to leak from the habitat at an unacceptable rate, four divers volunteered to repair the leak in place rather than lifting the habitat to the surface. Their first attempt was unsuccessful, and the divers had been awake for twenty hours using amphetamines to stay alert for a second attempt, [2] during which aquanaut Berry L. Cannon died. [22] [23] It was found that his rebreather was missing baralyme, the chemical necessary to remove carbon dioxide. [22] Surgeon commander John Rawlins, a Royal Navy medical officer assigned to the project, also suggested that hypothermia during the dive was a contributing factor to the problem not being recognized by the diver. [24]

According to Craven, while the other divers were undergoing the week-long decompression, repeated attempts were made to sabotage their air supply by someone aboard the command barge. Eventually, a guard was posted on the decompression chamber and the men were recovered safely. A potentially unstable suspect was identified by the staff psychiatrist, but the culprit was never prosecuted. Craven suggests this may have been done to spare the Navy bad press so soon after the USS Pueblo incident. [21]

The SEALAB program came to a halt, and although the SEALAB III habitat was retrieved, [21] it was eventually scrapped. Aspects of the research continued, [25] but no new habitats were built.

NCEL (now a part of Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center) of Port Hueneme, California, was responsible for the handling of several contracts involving life support systems used on SEALAB III. [26]

A model of SEALAB III can be found at the Man in the Sea Museum in Panama City Beach, Florida. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saturation diving</span> Diving decompression technique

Saturation diving is diving for periods long enough to bring all tissues into equilibrium with the partial pressures of the inert components of the breathing gas used. It is a diving mode that reduces the number of decompressions divers working at great depths must undergo by only decompressing divers once at the end of the diving operation, which may last days to weeks, having them remain under pressure for the whole period. A diver breathing pressurized gas accumulates dissolved inert gas used in the breathing mixture to dilute the oxygen to a non-toxic level in the tissues, which can cause decompression sickness if permitted to come out of solution within the body tissues; hence, returning to the surface safely requires lengthy decompression so that the inert gases can be eliminated via the lungs. Once the dissolved gases in a diver's tissues reach the saturation point, however, decompression time does not increase with further exposure, as no more inert gas is accumulated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aquarius Reef Base</span> Underwater habitat off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

The Aquarius Reef Base is an underwater habitat located 5.4 mi (8.7 km) off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Florida, United States. It is the world's only undersea research laboratory and it is operated by Florida International University. It is deployed on the ocean floor 62 ft (19 m) below the surface and next to a deep coral reef named Conch Reef.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underwater habitat</span> Human habitable underwater enclosure filled with breathable gas

Underwater habitats are underwater structures in which people can live for extended periods and carry out most of the basic human functions of a 24-hour day, such as working, resting, eating, attending to personal hygiene, and sleeping. In this context, 'habitat' is generally used in a narrow sense to mean the interior and immediate exterior of the structure and its fixtures, but not its surrounding marine environment. Most early underwater habitats lacked regenerative systems for air, water, food, electricity, and other resources. However, some underwater habitats allow for these resources to be delivered using pipes, or generated within the habitat, rather than manually delivered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aquanaut</span> Diver who remains at depth underwater for longer than 24 hours

An aquanaut is any person who remains underwater, breathing at the ambient pressure for long enough for the concentration of the inert components of the breathing gas dissolved in the body tissues to reach equilibrium, in a state known as saturation. Usually this is done in an underwater habitat on the seafloor for a period equal to or greater than 24 continuous hours without returning to the surface. The term is often restricted to scientists and academics, though there were a group of military aquanauts during the SEALAB program. Commercial divers in similar circumstances are referred to as saturation divers. An aquanaut is distinct from a submariner, in that a submariner is confined to a moving underwater vehicle such as a submarine that holds the water pressure out. Aquanaut derives from the Latin word aqua ("water") plus the Greek nautes ("sailor"), by analogy to the similar construction "astronaut".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tektite habitat</span> Undersea laboratory and experimental habitat

The Tektite habitat was an underwater laboratory which was the home to divers during Tektite I and II programs. The Tektite program was the first scientists-in-the-sea program sponsored nationally. The habitat capsule was placed in Great Lameshur Bay, Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands in 1969 and again in 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NEEMO</span> NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation project

NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, is a NASA analog mission that sends groups of astronauts, engineers and scientists to live in the Aquarius underwater laboratory, the world's only undersea research station, for up to three weeks at a time in preparation for future space exploration.

Continental Shelf Station Two or Conshelf Two was an attempt at creating an environment in which people could live and work on the sea floor. It was the successor to Continental Shelf Station One.

A helium release valve, helium escape valve or gas escape valve is a feature found on some diving watches intended for saturation diving using helium based breathing gas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helgoland Habitat</span> Ambient pressure underwater habitat

The Helgoland underwater laboratory (UWL) is an underwater habitat. It was built by Dräger in Lübeck, Germany in 1968 for the Biological Institute Helgoland, and was the first of its kind in the world built for use in colder waters. It is named after the island Helgoland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George F. Bond</span> US Navy physician and diving medicine and saturation diving researcher

Captain George Foote Bond was a United States Navy physician who was known as a leader in the field of undersea and hyperbaric medicine and the "Father of Saturation Diving".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berry L. Cannon</span> American aquanaut who died in a diving incident (1935–1969)

Berry Louis Cannon was an American aquanaut who served on the SEALAB II and III projects of the U.S. Navy. Cannon died of carbon dioxide poisoning while attempting to repair SEALAB III. It was later found that his diving rig's baralyme canister, which should have absorbed the carbon dioxide Cannon exhaled, was empty.

Joseph Beverly MacInnis is a Canadian physician, author, and diver. In 1974, MacInnis was the first scientist to dive in the near-freezing waters beneath the North Pole. In 1976 he became a member of the Order of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joachim Wendler</span> German aquanaut (1939–1975)

Joachim Wendler was a West German aquanaut who died of an air embolism while returning to the surface of the Gulf of Maine from the Helgoland underwater habitat. He was participating in a checkout mission for the First International Saturation Study of Herring and Hydroacoustics (FISSHH) project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dewey Smith</span> American aquanaut. Died in diving accident.

Dewey Dewayne Smith was an underwater diver, former United States Navy medic and professional aquanaut. He died during a dive from the Aquarius underwater habitat off Key Largo in May 2009. A subsequent investigation determined that multiple factors combined to cause the accident.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig B. Cooper</span> American aquanaut

Craig B. Cooper is a professional aquanaut from the United States who served from 1991 to 2010 as Operations Manager for the Aquarius Reef Base underwater habitat. Cooper is known to fellow divers by the nickname "Coop".

Robert Carlton Sheats was an American Master Diver in the United States Navy. He enlisted in the Navy in 1935 and retired in July 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Morgan Wells</span> Physiologist, aquanaut and researcher (1940–2017)

John Morgan Wells was a marine biologist, and physiologist involved in the development of decompression systems for deep diving, and the use of nitrox as a breathing gas for diving. He is known for developing the widely used NOAA Nitrox I and II mixtures and their decompression tables in the late 1970s, the deep diving mixture of oxygen, helium, and nitrogen known as NOAA Trimix I, for research in undersea habitats, where divers live and work under pressure for extended periods, and for training diving physicians and medical technicians in hyperbaric medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index of underwater divers</span> Alphabetical listing of articles about underwater divers

The following index is provided as an overview of and topical guide to underwater divers:

Diving support equipment is the equipment used to facilitate a diving operation. It is either not taken into the water during the dive, such as the gas panel and compressor, or is not integral to the actual diving, being there to make the dive easier or safer, such as a surface decompression chamber. Some equipment, like a diving stage, is not easily categorised as diving or support equipment, and may be considered as either.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert A. Barth</span> Pioneering US Navy aquanaut

Robert August Barth was a United States Navy Chief Quartermaster, pioneering aquanaut and professional diver. He was the only diver to participate in all U.S. Navy SEALAB missions led by George F. Bond. Barth is considered to be the father of the Rolex Sea Dweller. In 1967, he developed the idea for the helium release valve which was patented by Rolex on November 6, 1967.

References

  1. ↑ Squire, Rachael (2021). Undersea geopolitics : Sealab, science, and the Cold War (Hardback ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN   978-1-78660-730-0. OCLC   1236090910.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chamberland, Dennis (1986). "Sealab: Unfinished Legacy" . Proceedings. 112 (1). United States Naval Institute: 72–82.
  3. 1 2 "Where Have All the Aquanauts Gone? The Story of Sealab". HowStuffWorks. 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
  4. 1 2 Murray, John (2005). "'Papa Topside', Captain George F. Bond, MC, USN" (PDF). Faceplate. Vol. 9, no. 1. pp. 8–9. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 7, 2012. Retrieved January 15, 2010.
  5. ↑ Barth, Bob (2000). Sea Dwellers – The Humor, Drama and Tragedy of the U.S. Navy SEALAB Programs. Houston, Texas: Doyle Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN   0-9653359-3-3.
  6. 1 2 Florida, Man in the Sea Museum of Panama City Beach. "Tour Exhibits". Man in the Sea Museum of Panama City Beach, Florida. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  7. 1 2 "Marine Mammals: The Navy's Super Searchers". U. S. Naval Undersea Museum. Retrieved 29 June 2023. In 1964, Tuffy starred in the documentary 'The Dolphins That Joined the Navy'. The following year, he participated in the Sealab II project, an experiment where divers lived underwater. Tuffy carried messages and tools to the undersea habitat and practiced rescuing lost or injured divers.
  8. 1 2 Roland Radloff & Robert Helmreich (1968). Groups Under Stress: Psychological Research in Sealab II. Appleton-Century-Crofts. ISBN   0-89197-191-2.
  9. ↑ T. A. Clarke; A. O. Flechsig; R. W. Grigg (September 1967). "Ecological studies during Project Sealab II. A sand-bottom community at depth of 61 meters and the fauna attracted to "Sealab II" are investigated". Science. 157 (3795): 1381–9. Bibcode:1967Sci...157.1381C. doi:10.1126/science.157.3795.1381. PMID   4382569.
  10. ↑ James W. Miller; Ian G. Koblick (1984). Living and Working in the Sea. New York City: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. pp. 60–61. ISBN   0-442-26084-9.
  11. ↑ "Aquanauts and Sealab". U.S. Navy Museum, Naval History & Heritage Command, United States Navy . Retrieved February 21, 2012.
  12. ↑ Ben Hellwarth (2012). Sealab: America's Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor . New York City: Simon & Schuster. pp.  147–148, 327. ISBN   978-0-7432-4745-0. LCCN   2011015725.
  13. ↑ Tom Stimson (July 1967). "TUFFY—The Navy's Deep Sea Lifeguard". Popular Mechanics . Vol. 128, no. 1. New York City: The Hearst Corporation. pp. 66–69, 178. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
  14. ↑ Hellwarth, p. 173.
  15. ↑ "Lost and Found Sound: The Stories - LBJ & the Helium Filled Astronaut". The Kitchen Sisters. 1999. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
  16. ↑ LBJ & the Helium-Filled Astronaut - Lost and Found Sound: A Bizarre Phone Conversation, All Things Considered, October 15, 1999
  17. ↑ Astronaut Scott Carpenter Speaks to President Johnson from a Helium-Atmosphere Decompression Chamber on YouTube
  18. 1 2 "Wireless tests aboard US Navy ship include exploration of USN/SIO Sea Lab II". High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network. February 13, 2002. Retrieved February 18, 2011.
  19. ↑ Kuling, J. W.; Summitt, J. K. (1970). "Saturation Dives, with Excursions, for the Development of a Decompression Schedule for Use during SEALAB III". US Navy Experimental Diving Unit Technical Report. NEDU-RR-9-70. Archived from the original on July 1, 2012. Retrieved July 8, 2008.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  20. ↑ Crowley, R. W.; Summitt, J. K. (1970). "Report of Experimental Dives for SEALAB III Surface Support Decompression Schedules". US Navy Experimental Diving Unit Technical Report. NEDU-RR-15-70. Archived from the original on March 6, 2010. Retrieved July 8, 2008.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  21. 1 2 3 Craven, John Piña (2001). The Silent War: The Cold War Battle Beneath the Sea. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN   0-684-87213-7.
  22. 1 2 "Oceanography: Death in the Depths". Time . February 28, 1969. Archived from the original on December 14, 2008. Retrieved February 18, 2011.
  23. ↑ Schwartz, John (7 April 2020). "Robert Barth, a Pioneer of Deep-Sea Diving, Dies at 89". The New York Times . Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  24. ↑ Davis, Michael (1979). "Immersion hypothermia in scuba diving". South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal. 9 (2). Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved July 29, 2011.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  25. ↑ Searle, Willard Franklyn (1969). "Test procedures for supervisor of salvage sponsored work projects for Sealab III". Deep Submergence Systems, Office of Naval Research.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  26. ↑ Bayles, John J. & Taylor, Douglas. "Aquanauts Composite Life Support Umbilicals - SEALAB III. (2005) l" . Retrieved August 27, 2008.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Bibliography

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