About Sealab
“A thrilling, true-life adventure that transports the reader to a place as foreboding, exciting, and dangerous as outer space…”
— Robert Kurson, author of the best-selling Shadow Divers
“…as captivating as an adventure novel.” — Parade
“…brings this long-shuttered program back to life.” — Discover
“…combines the work of a diligent investigative reporter with that of a feature writer who loves a good sea story.” — Naval History
Sealab is the underwater Right Stuff: the true story of how a gutsy team of U.S. Navy divers and scientists set out to prove that you could build the marine equivalent of a space station—and they forever changed man’s relationship to the sea. Their quest would ultimately do for deep-sea diving what breaking the sound barrier had done for flight.
Sealab the well-received nonfiction book, originally published by Simon & Schuster in 2012, became the basis of a PBS documentary, also called Sealab, that premiered in February 2019 on the renowned “American Experience” series; it’s now streaming on Amazon Prime and available on DVD. The hour-long program by the accomplished crew at Insignia Films adds a new dimension to the Sealab story with its stunning pastiche of graphics, images, and rare archival footage.
Anyone who’s read the book will recognize the history that’s deftly recounted in the film: 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, industry, recovering sunken submarines and aircraft. All of this and perhaps more would be possible, if only the harrowing physical and physiological barriers could be broken.
The unlikely father of Sealab, George Bond, was a colorful and charismatic 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: America’s Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor is a genuine 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 invest in exploring “inner space” with anything like the money and resources poured into outer space.
Ben Hellwarth, a veteran journalist and consultant on the PBS film, interviewed many surviving participants from the three Sealab ventures and conducted extensive documentary research to write the first comprehensive account of one of the most important yet least appreciated technological triumphs of all time. His compelling narrative—“as captivating as an adventure novel,” in the words of Parade magazine—covers the story from its scrappy origins in Dr. Bond’s Navy laboratory, through nail-biting close calls, historic advances, the like-minded efforts of Cousteau and others, and the mysterious tragedy that brought about the end of Sealab—or at least appeared to. By then, a few months shy of the first moon landing, a new era in diving and manned undersea operations had already begun.
Available in all formats: hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. See bookseller links below.
SEALAB Reviews
“…as captivating as an adventure novel.” – Parade
“…brings this long-shuttered program back to life.” — Discover
“…a deft account of deep diving history.” – New York Review of Books
“…combines the work of a diligent investigative reporter with that of a feature writer who loves a good sea story.” – Naval History
“Required reading.” – New York Post
“. . . descriptions of underwater danger are as arresting as the surreal images of groups of stoic grouper fish . . .” – A.V. Club
” . . .so profoundly interesting and thrillingly told that anyone, within the diving industry and otherwise, will find this book
simply hard to put down.” – UnderWater
“. . . perilous incidents supply Hellwarth’s dramatic peaks, while, overall, his assemblage of living memory about Sealab constitutes important historical preservation of its place, possibly as cover for deep-sea espionage activities, in the annals of the U.S. Navy.” – Booklist
“Intriguing account of a relatively unknown program for undersea exploration.” – Kirkus Reviews
“The physiological effects of deep-sea diving, the gradual improvement in equipment, the tragic deaths of several of the aquanauts, and the personalities of all involved are vividly depicted.” – Library Journal
“Intelligently and accurately recorded, Ben Hellwarth’s Sealab finally brings the historically significant story of America’s daring aquanauts out of the long shadow of the nation’s astronauts. Jules Verne himself would have been proud to tell this tale of teamwork and raw courage, with its colorful cast of divers boldly attempting to go far deeper into a hostile ocean and stay down far longer than ever before. Sealab is a magnificent book that honors those who risked all for science and their country.
— Leslie Leaney, Founder and Publisher, The Journal of Diving History
“A thrilling, true-life adventure that transports the reader to a place as foreboding, exciting, and dangerous as outer space. Ben Hellwarth’s Sealab is more than a great history of unsung American explorers. It is a tale of man’s deepest desires and grandest ambitions, and his willingness to risk it all for dreams as vast as the ocean floor itself.”
— Robert Kurson, author of Shadow Divers
“Sealab is a must read for anyone who wants to know the true story behind America’s Man-in-the-Sea Program, complete with all of its triumphs and tragedies.”
— Dr. Robert D. Ballard, Deep Sea Explorer and author of The Discovery of the Titanic
“I grew up with Sealab and Conshelf. Our decisionmakers need to focus on the importance of one of our vital life support systems–the ocean, 70% of our planet. This incredibly detailed, precise book should be read by those who care about our future so they can start planning by basing their passion and decisions on solid foundations.”
— Jean-Michel Cousteau, founder and president, Ocean Futures Society
“A remarkably stirring narrative filled with an awe-inducing cast of scientific adventurers who risked life and limb to not only explore the ocean’s depths, but to make them their own. What Tom Wolfe revealed in such riveting detail of the space program in The Right Stuff, Ben Hellwarth matches here for underwater discovery.”
— Neal Bascomb, author of The Perfect Mile and Hunting Eichmann
“Ben Hellwarth’s engrossing, meticulously researched chronicle of America’s quest to live underwater doesn’t merely recount a forgotten chapter in contemporary history. It reminds us of a time when the country had big, larger-than-life ideas–and the Right Stuff-sized characters to plunge into them.”
— David Browne, author of Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970
“Painstakingly reported and beautifully written, Sealab is proof that American literary journalism is alive and well. How deep under the water can man go, and how long can he stay there? Sealab is Ben Hellwarth’s fascinating answer.”
— Robert S. Boynton, Director of Literary Reportage Concentration, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University
SEALAB eXCERPT
Three hundred feet down . . .
Chapter 1: A Deep Escape. In this first chapter, you’ll meet Dr. George Bond, the unlikely father of the U.S. Navy’s Sealab program, seen here at a Navy laboratory in the early 1960s. The Sealab story opens with Bond’s dramatic attempt to prove a point about submarine escape and the human body’s ability to function underwater, and under pressure.
To read the endnotes for this chapter, and get a sampling of this nonfiction book's sturdy factual foundation, click here.
The chapters that follow are:
Chapter 2: Diving
Chapter 3: Genesis
Chapter 4: Friendly Rivals
Chapter 5: Depth and Duration
Chapter 6: Experimental Divers
Chapter 7: Deep Loss, Deeper Thinking
Chapter 8: Triangle Trials
Chapter 9: “Breathe!”
Chapter 10: The Tiltin’ Hilton
Chapter 11: Lessons in Survival
Chapter 12: The Third Team
Chapter 13: The Damn Hatch
Chapter 14: An Investigation
Chapter 15: The Oil Patch
Chapter 16: The Rivals Press On
Chapter 17: The Projects
Chapter 18: Answers and Questions