Sealab

by Ben Hellwarth

  25 The book sold briskly: Leaney, “Jacques Yves Cousteau: The Pioneering Years,” p. 27.

  25 National Geographic Society signed on: Capt. Jacques-Yves Cousteau, “Fish Men Discover a 2,200-Year-Old Greek Ship,” National Geographic, January 1954; Robert M. Poole, Explorers House: National Geographic and the World It Made (New York: Penguin, 2004), p. 111.

  25 debut on American network: Omnibus, no. 16, Part 1, on CBS, Jan. 17, 1954, viewed at Museum of Television and Radio, New York City, March 28, 2003.

  25 “You get the impression”: Ibid.

  25 diving school at Key West: U.S. Navy Diving Manual, Part I, p. 7.

  26 unsuitable beyond 130: Ibid., Part III, p. 9.

  26 the standard Navy limit: Ibid., Part I, pp. 96, 98, 109, 110; Wallace, interview, June 1, 2003.

  26 earlier researchers had suggested: James Vorosmarti Jr., M.D., “A Very Short History of Saturation Diving,” Historical Diving Times 20 (Winter 1997): 5.

  26 How long can a man stay down?: Bond, recorded keynote speech at Albany Medical College.

  26 six hundred hardhat dives: Maas, The Terrible Hours, p. 236.

  26 typical bottom time: LaVO, Back from the Deep, p. 66.

  26 “You are wasting time”: Bond, “Man in the Sea” (undated paper, apparently for an audience of industrial researchers in author’s possession; references in the text indicate that this paper must have been written circa 1967; it is similar to Bond’s previously cited paper presented to Association of American Medical Colleges, Sept. 29, 1966), p. 4.

  26 considered his BuMed boss: Ibid.; Gerald J. Duffner, former director of submarine medicine, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, interview, April 2, 2003.

  CHAPTER 3: GENESIS

  Page

  28 renowned illustrator: Robert E. Weinberg, A Biographical Dictionary of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1988), p. 178.

  28 “exclusive first look”: Neil Hickey, “Your Future Home Under the Sea,” The American Weekly, Nov. 9, 1958, p. 5.

  29 maintained a peripatetic schedule: Interviews, corroborated by an inch-thick file from Bond’s early years in New London containing numerous travel-related memos, such as one from Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet to Bond, dated Aug. 19, 1958, pertaining to a three-day trip to Washington, D.C. A letter from Gerald J. Duffner, dated Sept. 23, 1959, also alludes to Bond’s frequent travels (in author’s possession).

  29 Bond first met Walt Mazzone: Mazzone, interview, Jan. 2, 2002.

  29 serving as a valued mentor: Robert C. Bornmann, interview, Feb. 13, 2003.

  29 catalyst for a conversation: Mazzone, interview, Jan. 2, 2002.

  30 came from a working-class family: Walter Mazzone, interview, San Diego, Calif., March 17, 2002.

  30 aboard the submarine Puffer: Ibid.; Theodore Roscoe, True Tales of Bold Escapes (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1965), pp. 57, 77, 79; Capt. William J. Ruhe, USN (ret.), War in the Boats: My World War II Submarine Battles (Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 1994), p. 196.

  31 on the USS Crevalle: Mazzone, interview, March 17, 2002; Ruhe, War in the Boats, pp. 195, 277, 293.

  31 wearing only the Jack Browne: Mazzone, interview, March 17, 2002.

  32 something that Mazzone admired: Mazzone, interview, Jan. 2, 2002.

  32 a favorite maxim: Ibid.; Mazzone, interview, Jan. 17, 2003.

  32 escapes from 150: Bond et al., “Deep Submarine Escape,” p. 11.

  32 main physiological issues: Robert D. Workman, George F. Bond, and Walter F. Mazzone, “Prolonged Exposure of Animals to Pressurized Normal and Synthetic Atmospheres,” U.S. Naval Medical Research Laboratory Report no. 374, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Navy Department Research Project MR005.14-3100.02, Jan. 26, 1962, p. 1; Mazzone, taped interview, San Diego, Calif., Aug. 7, 2002.

  32 Oxygen toxicity: U.S. Navy Diving Manual, Part I, p. 70.

  33 Jacques Cousteau found this out: Cousteau, The Silent World, p. 16.

  33 experimented with other gases: P. B. Bennett, “Inert Gas Narcosis,” in The Physiology and Medicine of Diving and Compressed Air Work, P. B. Bennett and D. H. Elliott, eds., 1st ed. (Baltimore: Williams & Williams, 1969), p. 162.

  33 boundary was untested: U.S. Navy Diving Manual, Part I, pp. 102, 110; Wallace, interview, June 1, 2003.

  33 more time decompressing than working: A. J. Bachrach, “A Short History of Man in the Sea,” in The Physiology and Medicine of Diving and Compressed Air Work, P. B. Bennett and D. H. Elliott, eds., 2nd ed. (London: Ballière Tindall, 1975), p. 6.

  33 a half-hour of bottom time: U.S. Navy Diving Manual, Part I, p. 113.

  33 a full hour on the bottom: Ibid.

  33 Some researchers had suggested: Vorosmarti, “A Very Short History of Saturation Diving,” p. 5; Vorosmarti letter to author, Dec. 21, 2003, with enclosed copy of letter from G. C. C. Damant to Dr. John Scott Haldane dated July 16, 1935; Vorosmarti e-mail to author, Jan. 26, 2004; Mazzone, interview, Aug. 7, 2002; e-mail to author, April 20, 2005.

  33 discovered that nitrogen was responsible: P. B. Bennett, “Inert Gas Narcosis,” in The Physiology and Medicine of Diving and Compressed Air Work, 1st ed., p. 156; Peter Bennett, taped interview, Feb. 8, 2008.

  33 pioneered the use of helium: A. R. Behnke, “Some Early Studies of Decompression,” in The Physiology and Medicine of Diving and Compressed Air Work, 1st ed., p. 233; Bennett, interview, Feb. 8, 2008.

  34 Behnke retired from the Navy: Who’s Who in America, 41st ed. (Chicago: Marquis Who’s Who, 1980–81), p. 235.

  34 a supportive elder and friend: Helen Siiteri, editor of Papa Topside, who interviewed Behnke in the early 1990s before his death, telephone interview by author, May 16, 2006; assorted personal letters from Bond to Behnke (in author’s possession), including one that alludes to prior correspondence, Nov. 15, 1971; a cheerful letter from Behnke to Bond, April 20, 1973.

  34 preliminary and relatively shallow steps: A. R. Behnke, “Some Early Studies of Decompression,” in The Physiology and Medicine of Diving and Compressed Air Work, 1st ed., p. 248; Vorosmarti, “A Very Short History of Saturation Diving,” p. 5.

  34 Dr. Edgar End: “Diver Tests Human Endurance: Max Gene Nohl Collapses with Bends After 27 Hours in Pressure Tank,” Look, March 28, 1939, p. 28.

  34 a concept known as “saturation diving”: Bond, Papa Topside, pp. 3, 32; Bachrach, “A Short History of Man in the Sea,” p. 6.

  34 bandied about in the mid-1940s: Vorosmarti, “A Very Short History of Saturation Diving,” p. 5.

  34 had been understood for years: A. E. Boycott, D.M., G.C.C. Damant, Lieut. and Inspector of Diving, R.N., and J. S. Haldane, M.D., F.R.S., “The Prevention of Compressed-Air Illness,” Journal of Hygiene 8 (1908): 345; Eadie, I Like Diving, pp. 60, 62.

  34 Decompression and its underlying theories: R. D. Workman, “Decompression Theory: American Practice,” in The Physiology and Medicine of Diving and Compressed Air Work, 1st ed., p. 252.

  35 bends are especially dangerous: D. J. Kidd and D. H. Elliott, “Clinical Manifestations and Treatment of Decompression Sickness in Divers,” in The Physiology and Medicine of Diving and Compressed Air Work, 1st ed., p. 471.

  35 “fast” tissues: Workman, “Decompression Theory,” in The Physiology and Medicine of Diving and Compressed Air Work, 1st ed., p. 256; U.S. Navy Diving Manual, Part I, p. 67.

  35 for causing severe aches: Kidd and Elliott, “Treatment of Decompression Sickness,” in The Physiology and Medicine of Diving and Compressed Air Work, 1st ed., p. 466.

  35 Mathematical models: Workman, “Decompression Theory,” p. 252.

  35 Dr. Workman succeeded Bond: Lois Birkner Workman, Dr. Workman’s wife of fifty-five years, interview, May 7, 2003. Robert Dean Workman died April 4, 1998, at his farm in Picayune, Miss. He was seventy-six.

  35 genial, but a bit reserved: Interviews with former colleagues, including Wallace, interview, June 1, 2003, and Barth, interview, Sept. 27, 2002.

  36 always wanted to be a
doctor: Lois Workman, interview, May 7, 2003.

  36 Workman went scuba diving: Ibid.

  36 changed career course: Ibid.

  36 keen feel for the mathematical: Robert C. Bornmann, “Robert Dean Workman, M.D., Past President and Founding Member of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, Inc.: A Remembrance,” Pressure 27, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1998) (newsletter of the U&HMS): 2; Mazzone, taped interview, May 8, 2003; Wallace, interview, June 1, 2003.

  36 postgraduate fellowship: Bornmann, “A Remembrance,” p. 2; Lois Workman, interview.

  36 Dr. Christian Lambertsen: “2000 Historical Diver Magazine Diving Pioneer Award,” Historical Diver 8, no. 4 (Fall 2000): 5.

  36 confirmed a critical point: Mazzone, interview, May 8, 2003; Mazzone, e-mail to author, April 19, 2005; Bond, Papa Topside, pp. 32, 88.

  36 The decompression curve flattened out: Mazzone, e-mail to author, April 20, 2005.

  37 called these experiments Genesis: Mazzone, interview, Jan. 2, 2002; Bond, Papa Topside, pp. 4, 33.

  37 building adjacent to the bottom: Barth, interview, June 9, 2003.

  37 much in the way of instrumentation: Mazzone, interview, Aug. 7, 2002.

  37 struck Bond as a good starting point: Ibid.

  38 rats were dead: Workman, Bond, and Mazzone, “Prolonged Exposure of Animals,” p. 5.

  38 some two hundred: Bond, Pharmaceutical Wholesalers speech, p. 10.

  38 a heightened friskiness: Mazzone, interview, Aug. 7, 2002.

  38 the lab evoked: Workman, Bond, and Mazzone, “Prolonged Exposure of Animals,” p. 25; Mazzone, interview, Aug. 7, 2002.

  38 money out of their own pockets: Mazzone, interviews, Jan. 2, 2002, and Aug. 7, 2002; Bond, Pharmaceutical Wholesalers speech, p. 9.

  38 costly helium: Mazzone, taped interview, Feb. 5, 2003.

  38 some scientists had expressed doubt: Bond, “Prolonged Exposure to High Ambient Pressure,” p. 31.

  39 goats enlisted: Barth, interview, Sept. 26, 2002; Mazzone, interview, Jan. 2, 2002.

  39 a number of goat pairs: Workman, Bond, and Mazzone, “Prolonged Exposure of Animals,” p. 19; Mazzone, interview, Aug. 7, 2002.

  39 nonverbal warning signs: Workman, Bond, and Mazzone, “Prolonged Exposure of Animals,” p. 22; Mazzone, interview, Aug. 7, 2002.

  39 stint as a training tank instructor: Bob Barth, Sea Dwellers: The Humor, Drama and Tragedy of the U.S. Navy Sealab Programs (Houston, Tex.: Doyle Publishing, 2000), p. 9; Bob Barth, interview, Sept. 26, 2002.

  39 enlisted in the Navy at seventeen: Barth, interview, Sept. 30, 2002.

  39 came time for shore duty: Barth, interview, Sept. 26, 2002.

  39 “bottom drops”: Barth, Sea Dwellers, p. 9; Barth, interview, Sept. 26, 2002.

  40 One favorite stunt: Barth, interview, Sept. 26, 2002.

  40 pet Kampuchean monkey: Barth, Sea Dwellers, p. 16; Aquadro, interview, May 16–18, 2003.

  40 put the goats on leashes: Mazzone, interview, Aug. 7, 2002; Barth, interview, Sept. 24, 2002; Barth, Sea Dwellers, p. 11.

  41 stopped by a base patrolman: Barth, interview, Sept. 24, 2002; Barth, Sea Dwellers, p. 11.

  41 Able and Baker: Richard Witkin, “2 Monkeys Survive Flight Into Space in U.S. Rocket and Are Retrieved At Sea,” New York Times, May 29, 1959, p. 1.

  41 cover of Life magazine: Life, June 15, 1959.

  41 good news for humans: Workman, Bond, and Mazzone, “Prolonged Exposure of Animals,” pp. 32, 35.

  41 a more conservative decompression: Ibid., p. 32.

  42 report’s message was clear: Peter Bennett, Ph.D., D.Sc., professor of anesthesiology and senior director, F. G. Hall Hypo-Hyperbaric Center, Duke University Medical Center, and coeditor of The Physiology and Medicine of Diving and Compressed Air Work, interview, Oct. 27, 2003.

  CHAPTER 4: FRIENDLY RIVALS

  Page

  43 Arne Zetterström: Dugan, Man Under the Sea, p. 51.

  43 Maurice Fargues: Leaney, “Cousteau: The Pioneering Years,” p. 23.

  43 Wilfred Bollard: Dugan, Man Under the Sea, p. 43.

  43 George Wookey: “Obituary of Lieutenant George Wookey,” (London) Daily Telegraph, April 6, 2007, p. 29.

  44 speech to the Boston Sea Rovers: “The History of the Boston Sea Rovers, Vol. 1, 1953–1974” (photocopy, Boston Sea Rovers, Boston, Mass., [2000]), p. 37.

  44 retired from the French navy: Jacques-Yves Cousteau with James Dugan, The Living Sea (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), p. 327.

  44 the Calypso: Ibid., p. 23.

  44 captivated by Bond’s ideas: Ibid.

  44 “Your message was important”: Clifford P. Wells Jr. to Bond, Jan. 25, 1960, from Park Ridge, Ill. (in author’s possession).

  44 Diver of the Year: “The History of the Boston Sea Rovers,” p. 50.

  44 introduced Bond and Cousteau: Ibid., p. 51.

  44 his first significant meeting with Cousteau: Bond, Papa Topside, p. 3; “An Evening of Undersea Adventure with Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, in person, and Commander George F. Bond, U.S. Navy,” program for the Richard Ferg Memorial Fund Benefit at Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, New York, sponsored by the Long Island Dolphins Inc., Sept. 10, 1959 (in author’s possession).

  44 James Dugan: Leaney, “Cousteau: The Pioneering Years,” p. 24.

  45 Dugan’s role: Ibid., p. 26; “The History of the Boston Sea Rovers,” p. 120.

  45 deep into the night: Bond, Papa Topside, p. 3.

  45 son of a businessman: Axel Madsen, Cousteau: An Unauthorized Biography (New York: Beaufort, 1986), p. 6.

  45 lived on 95th Street: Jean-Michel Cousteau, Mon père le commandant (Paris: L’Archipel, 2004), p. 17.

  45 hated riding horses: Ibid.; Madsen, Cousteau, p. 8.

  45 must have been inspiring: “The History of the Boston Sea Rovers,” p. 52; Cousteau, The Living Sea, p. 315.

  45 “Jacques Cousteau and me”: Mazzone, interviews, Jan. 2, 2002, and Jan. 23, 2003.

  45 Austrian Hans Hass: Dugan, Man Under the Sea, p. 152; Michael Jung, “Hans Hass: Pioneer Underwater Photographer and Swim Diver,” Santa Barbara Underwater Film Festival program (published with Historical Diving Society USA), Sept. 11, 1998, p. 13 (in author’s possession).

  45 cover of Time: Time, March 28, 1960.

  45 “one of the great explorers”: National Geographic, July 1961, p. 146.

  45 notably U.S. Divers: Sara Davidson, “Cousteau Searches for His Whale,” New York Times Magazine, Sept. 10, 1972, pp. 87–88; Leaney, “Cousteau: The Pioneering Years,” p. 28.

  46 Russians also had been engaged in: The History of Russian Diving (Historical Diving Society of Russia, St. Petersburg), no. 1 (2002), pp. 65, 69, 72; “Diving Boom in the Soviet Union,” in Men Under Water, James Dugan and Richard Vahan, eds., for the Underwater Society of America (Philadelphia: Chilton, 1965), pp. 50–52.

  46 Edwin Albert Link Jr.: Martha Clark and Jeanne Eichelberger, “Edwin A. Link, 1904–1981,” in The Link Collections (Binghamton: State University of New York, Special Collections, 1981, revised 1999), p. 7.

  46 Like Edison: Robert Conot, Thomas A. Edison: A Streak of Luck (New York: Da Capo, 1979), pp. 7–9.

  46 working full-time at his father’s business: Susan van Hoek with Marion Clayton Link, From Sky to Sea: A Story of Edwin A. Link (Flagstaff, Ariz.: Best Publishing, 2003), p. 14.

  46 fascinated with gadgets: Ibid., p. 2.

  46 hang around dusty airfields: Ibid., p. 14.

  46 threatened to disown: Ibid., p. 10.

  46 solo flight in 1926: Ibid., p. 16; Clark and Eichelberger, “Edwin A. Link,” p. 7.

  46 killed in training: Van Hoek with M. C. Link, From Sky to Sea, p. 15.

  47 without leaving the ground: Ibid.

  47 the Link Trainer: Ibid., pp. 19, 24, 25, 39–60; Clark and Eichelberger, “Edwin A. Link,” pp. 7–9.

  47 met Marion Clayton: Clark and Eichelberger, “Edwin A. Link,” p. 73.

  47 set up on a blind date: Van Hoek with M. C. Link, From Sky to Sea, pp. 28–2
9.

  47 married her best story: Clark and Eichelberger, “Edwin A. Link,” p. 73.

  47 took an active role: Ibid.; Van Hoek with M. C. Link, From Sky to Sea, pp. 30, 33.

  47 carnival ride: Van Hoek with M. C. Link, From Sky to Sea, pp. 34, 170.

  47 the military finally bought in: Ibid., pp. 34, 42–44, 60.

  47 two million airmen: Thomas W. Ennis, “Edwin A. Link, 77, Invented Instrument Flight Simulator,” New York Times, Sept. 9, 1981, Section B, p. 7; Clark and Eichelberger, “Edwin A. Link,” p. 73.

  47 ease out of the trainer business: Van Hoek with M. C. Link, From Sky to Sea, pp. 62, 181; Clark and Eichelberger, “Edwin A. Link,” p. 9.

  47 self-made millionaire: Van Hoek with M. C. Link, From Sky to Sea, pp. xvi, 70.

  47 holder of twenty patents: Link Biographical Statement, Sept. 15, 1981, including a chronology of patents, Folder 777, the Link Collections, Special Collections, State University of New York at Binghamton (hereafter abbreviated as LC).

  47 restless and taken up sailing: Van Hoek with M. C. Link, From Sky to Sea, p. 62.

  47 tried the Aqualung: Ibid., p. 80.

  47 first of many expeditions: Ibid., pp. 78, 83.

  47 reputable organizations: Ibid., pp. 79, 158, 236, 238, 251.

  47 enthralled with the history: Ibid., p. 85.

  47 routes of Christopher Columbus: Ibid., pp. 92, 116.

  48 Santa María: Ibid., p. 95.

  48 designing needed tools: Ibid., pp. 85, 89.

  48 caught wind of Bond’s Genesis experiments: Memorandum from LCDR Robert C. Bornmann, MC, USN, 614527/2100 to Chief of Naval Operations, “The E. A. Link Diving Expedition and the ‘Man in Sea’ Project,” Enclosure 1: “Background and Narrative Summary of Dives,” Oct. 31, 1962, p. 1 (in author’s possession).

  48 to convince the Navy brass: Link to Dr. Charles Aquadro, July 9, 1962, from aboard Sea Diver en route to Monaco, Folder 236; Link to M. M. Payne, National Geographic Society, Feb. 11, 1962, Folder 229, LC.

  48 project he called Man-in-Sea: Ibid., p. 32; Edwin A. Link, “Our Man-in-Sea Project,” National Geographic, May 1963, p. 713.

  48 society’s backing: Marion Clayton Link, Windows in the Sea (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973), p. 34; Link, “Our Man-in-Sea Project,” p. 715.