SEALAB Revisited

During the 1960s, new frontiers were being explored — space and sea. While it took humans until 1969 to set foot on the Moon, by 1964, underwater research was well on its way; a lab had been secured nearly 200 feet below the ocean’s surface. The pod, called SEALAB I, was commissioned by the U.S. Navy to test the feasibility of saturation diving and how humans react to spending prolonged time in isolation. The test results proved essential to the advancement of deep-sea diving. Learn more about SEALAB when journalist Ben Hellwarth discusses his book SEALAB: America’s Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor. Hellwarth will take the audience through the “golden era” of diving with the aid of audio clips, video, and photos on Thursday, November 15, at 7 p.m. at the S.B. Maritime Museum, 113 Harbor Way, Suite 190. For more information, call 962-8404 or visit sbmm.org.