SeaLab: America's Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor
Journalist and author Ben Hellwarth leads a captivating presentation on a brief history of deep-diving pioneers, promising prototypes, and the legacy of a forgotten undersea quest.
When: Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012, 7 p.m.
Where: S.B. Maritime Museum, 113 Harbor Wy., #190, Santa Barbara
Cost: Free - $5
Age limit: Not available
Categories: Lectures
Description:
Cost: Free (members), $5 (non-members).
RSVP: (805) 962-8404 x115
Visit: www.sbmm.org
With the aid of photographs, video and some long-lost audio clips, journalist Ben Hellwarth will recount the highlights of a golden era of diving during the 1960s that produced not only some memorable characters, but also the method known as "saturation diving, " a revolutionary advance that made it possible for divers - "aquanauts" - to live in undersea bases. They could then make working dives from these "habitats" that lasted hours instead of the minutes to which conventional dives had always been limited. In addition to the U.S. Navy group that came up with the prototype habitats called SEALAB, Jacques Cousteau and the American inventor Ed Link joined the effort to find better ways to visit the seabed - for military, industrial and scientific purposes. The rest is history, told for the first time in SEALAB. Journalist Ben Hellwarth writings have lately appeared in The New York Times, Discover magazine and The Huffington Post. He was previously a staff writer at several California newspapers, including the Santa Barbara News-Press. Ben will be available to sign his book after the presentation.
Phone: 805-962-8404
Event posted Oct. 17, 2012
Last updated Oct. 17, 2012
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