 Consider a city on the edge of the sea at the rim of the nation dependent on the sea on a continent surrounded by the waters of the sea a mere island as are all those minority parts of the planet we call the land from here at nation's end see the unending sea is a kind of symbolic road to distant responsibilities distant friends and enemies resources we must have to survive let alone prosper consider the shore as somewhat more than just a beach where it is in fact a dividing line for the two parts of the earth the only place in all the universe so divided for all we know today hot no more of seven seas but of one see indivisible this single sea that brings the planet that covers our world from northern ice to southern ice the single sea covering untold empires of mountain and canyon of plain and desert a home for living things far more akin to us perhaps than life elsewhere if any out in space a treasure trove of vital resources as we are just beginning to know but one see for all its swirls and roars for all its restlessness and yet for all its nearness a realm unto itself float over it fly over it move within it wrapped in your old familiar atmosphere enjoy the hobbies the sports the diversions of it all but before the immensity in the wonder of the sea before all that it is that we do not know we have but dipped our toes to begin at long last to do more to go further men have begun to go down to the sea not to cross it not to play within it but to dwell to live for a while consider for example the Bermudan neighborhood of the sea here in sea lab one warmen lived and worked for 11 days at a depth of 193 feet but how long can how many men were live and survive at how great a depth without coming we do not know the limit yet now it is a year later and men are ready to extend the limits if they can here another adventure is in the readying stage another exploration into that hostile alien place we call the sea within the sovereign waters of our America the political frontier is but three miles from the shore but the intellectual frontier is only a few feet below the waves for we know so little about so much of our time which is this unknown empire that begins before our very eyes on every shore captain Lewis Melton commanding along with George Bond also a captain in the United States Navy and a doctor of medicine now make ready for sea lab to one mile off the shore of La Jolla California as Navy divers and rigors prepare to lower sea lab to the bottom 205 feet below the question becomes can men go even deeper stay even longer and work not only hard but skillfully to what indeed are the limits on flesh and blood beneath the waves never before sea lab one had men lived so long within the sea at such a depth but to state a record is to state a challenge that eternal American question what next if man need not return to the service periodically taking a long time to decompress those potentially fatal bubbles within his body he can be infinitely more productive down below but suddenly a sea lab is being lowered command van we're losing pressure pretty fast I would imagine we have a leak here this was an unconventional kind of leak where the helium atmosphere inside the sea lab was being forced by its own pressure to escape that was only divers report leaks at all port bounce are we still losing gas rapidly I think we could probably stay ahead very well diving stations let's continue to lower away we can't stop I repeat we can't stop at 60 foot for check we're losing gas we have only 8,000 cubic feet of helium to get to the bottom we must continue to lower away became a race get sea lab to the bottom right now where the approximately equal pressures would keep the water out the vital gas is in and so 205 feet down that was only sea lab on the bottom the person they'll transfer capital or PTC goes down first in case anything goes wrong in the sea lab capsule the PTC kept at the same pressure as the sea lab itself will be the one refuge for the men it will also be their elevator for the ride back to the surface when there stays over 15 days later two other 10 man teams will follow this one each to remain 15 days accepting Scott Carpenter however the astronaut who is to become an aquanaut will remain below 30 consecutive days among the 10 men are a doctor an engineer and two oceanographer master diver price and captain Walter Mazzoni in charge of physiological and atmospheric control witness the departure the first team is to get the sea lab habitat operating we explore the sea around it to study marine life and the flow and temperature of the water and to be in themselves human experiments in the physiology of man as he exists and labors within the sea down here you can pay stiff prices for what would be small mistakes on the land or near the surface while Wilbur Eton rigged a lifeline to a sea lab commander Scott Carpenter the team leader enters through an open interface of water held at bay by the equal pressures within the capsule diving station aquanauts Carpenter and Eton have entered sea lab too I command and the second aquanauts are getting dressed and will be ready in about five minutes for the end of August the 45 day sea lab to experiment begin the men go down into an opaque and murky bit of the ocean far more typical of the ocean as a whole than those crystalline technical or deep soft Bermuda down they go accompanied always never alone in deep sea diving you owe your life sooner or later to the buddy system inside sea lab you begin your life as an alien to this realm by breathing an atmosphere of 80% helium 16% nitrogen and only 4% oxygen for ordinary air would be a deadly gas mixture at these pressures of 100 pounds per square inch seven times those of sea level it is almost as if you were on another planet so you are within the territorial waters of the United States Aquanaut Carpenter exchanges greetings with astronaut Gordon Cooper orbiting the earth in Gemini five histories first chat between the bottom of the sea and outer space imagine now the routine of 45 days beneath the sea exploring the cold depths where water temperatures range between 48 and 52 degrees setting outlines to the underwater weather station mapping the sea bottom even taking a census of the kind of sample inventory of a future food supply for the proliferating human race this offshore region of the ocean is known as the continental shelf which hugs all the confidence an explorable realm three times the size of the United States for seafood and minerals a new realm for travel and rest study and work today's fantasy turns out to be tomorrow's routine often enough already if you take the fish eye view the interlopers are making themselves at home what is physiological normalcy at seven times the pressure of the land breathing a strange gas mixture day after day dr. Sonnenberg medical in residence attending side captain bond and mizoni decide to have a look see at their charges 205 feet down since they will be down only a short time they will get off easy on the decompressing stopping every few feet on the way back up in the diving bell a very cold 73 minutes coming up for the scant 13 minutes they are allowed on the bottom it turns out that captains bond and mizoni intend to witness the reenlistment swearing-in ceremony of Aquanaut Kaufman proving that officers will sink to any depths to hold on to a good man if you are a marine biologist can you imagine a more ideal aquarium than the sea itself to which you to at least for a while belong the cold black water was not an attractive medium for work but in their early forays the aquanauts managed to install the underwater weather state a permanent in place and so from the shifting sands of the bottom land from the force and direction of the internal waves the sea will yield in good time and bit by bit a few of its mysteries man too has his mystery and he submits to frequent mathematical testing and even to electrocardiograms both in and out of the water as a constant check on his heart the question always what is normalcy under high pressure and a strange gas mixture supplies mail and newspapers come to you via United States Navy pressure pot an exclusive service others may imitate but never quite duplicate happy birthday doctor Sonnenberg but it was your loving wife who was responsible not the United States Navy pressure pot express service anyhow you can't strike a match in a helium atmosphere they're just isn't enough oxygen to make it burn good place to keep the smoking habit whenever you exit for a look see it bear in mind that the sea lab habitat is your compulsory home cannot just rise to the surface emergency or not rapid decompression would kill you you must take care not to get lost in the dark walk among the hazards of the deep or the scorpion the first act were not to be stung by one was carpenter who was hit on the right index finger causing his arm to swell all the way up to the elbow the pain was sharp and intense but no matter how serious the wound even if it were potentially fatal you do not return to the surface you are now an inhabitant of the sea until you decompress for 30 hours or more under dr. Bond's topside instructions dr. Sonnenberg treated the wound aided by special drugs stopped right in the sea lab the three members of team two already on board the first team waits to depart 15 days after sink down his farewell to carpenter who will remain below another 15 days the essential be a matter of a 54 minute elevator ride in the personnel transfer capsule after which 31 hours in the deck the compression chamber will return the nine men to terrestrial status you keep in touch with topside by electric writer and topside keeps an eye on you big brother like with its one-way television monitor while the rest of team two makes its way down what one of them called the longest 200 feet in the world carpenter holds quarters with the members of the second team he who had worked with the most sophisticated technology of our age in the prototypical space program and trusted it with the man in the sea program which he called a newly legitimatized child represented by a nucleus of 50 dedicated men working with mail order equipment in marginal condition but it is pioneers like these members of this new establishment the descendants who are helping this newly legitimatized child grow up today's sonar cupping its listening ear to the sounds of the deep will give way to better more sensitive longer range sonar and the current measurement device is but the progenitor of ocean wide systems to chart the nature of the waters and the migration of marine life in terms of temperature and current for all that man is as a child down here his basic motor skills cannot be taken for granted nor can he depend much on his five senses in this cold murky top heavy realm of water you develop a certain gladness to be home home sweet helium breathing crowded salivate heat-oteling home with its constant tests and measurements and checks relieved now and then by papa topside spoke symphony like that one the zealob zone symphony comes complete with the curious sound that breathing helium imparts to the human voice to wade those in distress who learned to come at once into an acoustic signal who learned to carry mail and a lifeline to a diver pretending to be lost who visited the aquanauts during their bottom land for raise who but toughie the porpoise first of the train breed who may become man's best friend within the sea sunday was normally a day of comparative rest today made more meaningful by the sea lab prayer give unusual wisdom to each of us topside who might somehow control their work safety is they perform their duties below when their work as I will together be done grant us all a safe and worthy respite from our laborers for a time to come we asked all this in the name of Jesus Christ our holy thus did 30 days pass a methodical and persistent sequence of work inside and outside the habitat of catches catch can meals and housekeeping of human measurement and evaluation under high pressure now the second team makes ready to depart Scott carpenter along with them after their span of 15 days is a 30 into the personnel transfer capsule and as medical wisdom has it 33 hours of decompression on the support vessel in the deck decompression chamber decompression is across the divers there meanwhile the third team of 10 men prepares to depart for inner space led by master diver Robert sheets at 50 the oldest of the aquanauts it's getting to be a kind of routine the almost inevitable destiny of things that seem fantastic at their very outset whether it be a flight across the ocean or even a man in orbit to make the far out and every day of air is after all the prime purpose of all our technology while he decompresses commander carpenter has a phone chat still in his helium voice with his commander in chief Scott do you read me off what's wrong with the president of the modern for how many fine with Scott the mighty glad to hear from me you've convinced me and all the nation that whether you're going up or down you have the courage and the skill to do a fine job then comes that happy moment when you become except for your memories like other men again breathing the natural atmosphere of mother is well down below dr. Sonnenberg who has returned for a second 15-day stint wrestles with that electrically heated diving suit that will permit three-hour journeys away from C-lab in comparative comfort the prime objective of the third team was to try new underwater salvage techniques using a special foam they raised barrels and an aircraft help from the bottom with special talk pre-tools working on the explosive principle they attached plates and lifting surfaces to part of a submarine hull older tools like the spear and the fish hook can be very useful too you may not like the shimmy that Japanese delicately roughly translated as raw fish but frying is verboten down here hydrocarbon smoke doesn't mix well with helium in a delicate man-made atmosphere this team in team two made excursion dives to the rim of the underwater canyon 266 feet below the surface master diver sheets however went with another man to the 300 foot mark followed thereafter by other members of the team afterward they dined on plankton that floating microscopic life of the sea saying it tasted like nuts but always you dive with another man not far away the brief history of deep diving has proved time after time that the best of divers needs help desperately sooner or later equipment can fail and men can go a stray in this pathless world work of the seafloor you see a hint of the future mining by bottom coring a miniaturized sample of what one day may be gigantic machines gathering minerals from the bottom land work to be done where existence alone is a kind of triumph where the aquanauts discovered you could make brief dives 100 feet lower than sea lab and return to it without decompressing this in itself is a bonus from nature 45 days have passed since the first 10 men came to live here and now the time has come for anchors away for men and hardware to the last swim toward the ptc elevator for the men at sea lab command man the aquanauts report the ore hatch has been shut and they are standing by ready to come up very well operator this is command man ptc is ready for lift off lift away a crucial moment at the personnel transfer capsule breaks water it contains 10 men still under sea bottom pressure must decompress slowly or die a faulty valve a leak a single mistake of the many that are possible could turn the capsule into a coffin as it is the ancient art of rigging is not the least of the skills you need in this particular kind of oceanography the mating of the personnel transfer capsule with the deck decompression chamber now begins the long wait decompression from 100 pounds per square inch to 14 and 7 tenths pounds per square inch from 205 feet below the sea level but at the 28 foot mark almost home trouble bad trouble that the report on your possible cases you'd like to give me a rundown on please yes captain I have a pretty deep seat in pain in my right leg started about an hour ago it started after right knee and has now progressed up to my hip and pain has increased in intensity I thought I'd better report to you as possible okay wait one let me check here I think we better hold the 26 feet I would recommend that we put nine people into the outer lock bring him up from the Corbin in and have have the interlock brought on down to 60 feet at dry pop on the oxygen treatment and so from the outer lock in a quiet tired moment after the requisite 35 hours nine men emerged from decompression not until more than 12 hours later that bob sheets emerged free of pain and in good shape even the home away from home a shell empty of men is once more upon the surface so to bell elsewhere for another chapter in this ongoing adventure of man within the sea perhaps we will see her again a sea lab three the commendations of today the just pride for work well done set the stage for the eternal question of all adventure where do we go from here perhaps we will routinely send men to 800 feet soon to 1700 and more feet within some years live to work to study looks to distant planets to plant his flag across the great born of lonely space while it is buried or set an unmeasured universe abides