Journalist Hellwarth chronicles American efforts to create an
underwater habitat that would open the ocean's depths to
exploration, at the same time that astronauts were racing to the
moon. In 1959, Navy doctor George Bond, was given the project to
train and equip seamen to escape from damaged submarines while
avoiding the bends, the often-fatal arterial gas embolisms
caused by rapid decompression of air as a diver rapidly
surfaces. Bond envisaged expanding the program beyond rescue
missions to encompass a wide range of underwater
activities—scientific and industrial as well as military. He
anticipated President Kennedy, who in 1961 proposed a major
underwater exploration program as a matter of absolute necessity
to the national interest, to the cost of $2 billion over the
next decade. “Knowledge of the oceans is more than a matter of
curiosity. Our very survival may hinge upon it,” said the
president. This resulted in the creation of the Sealab program,
which Bond was chosen to lead. Not only were the space