Purisima Comes Home to Santa Barbara

The World's First Commercial Diving lockout bell, "Purisima" originally launched in Santa Barbara Harbor in 1965, came home after a 1 year restoration project completed by the Santa Barbara City College Marine Diving Technology Department.

The historic diving bell was donated to the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum by the estate of its original designer, the late Hugh Dan Wilson who helped pioneer deep mixed gas diving offshore Santa Barbara in the 1960's. It made the trip to Santa Barbara from St. Petersburg Florida in 2010 where it had been stored for several decades. The 1000' dual sphere bell was named after Purisma Point in Santa Barbara County, where Wilson originally came up with the concept while diving for Abalone. Purisima allowed working commercial divers and engineers to be safely transported to deep subsea worksites without exposure to the harsh environment and elements.

Purisima was moved to the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum today after the work was done this past year at Santa Barbara City College Marine Diving Technology Department.

Many thanks to all the individuals and firms who helped with this- especially Seth Hammond and Specialty Crane and Lionel Galerne from International Underwater Contractors. Lionel got the ball rolling with a generous cash donation. Seth's company donated all the crane services several times throughout this project.

The Purisima and the divers who worked with, it helped secure Santa Barbara's place in history as the birthplace off deep-water mixed gas commercial diving.

-Don Barthelmess
Project Coordinator
Professor
SBCC Marine Diving Technology Department

Category:

Science & Technology

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