166
The Last Resource
using the metal cylinder, named Diogène, as a home base for
excursions and work in the surrounding sea. Because of the com—
paratively shallow depth no decompression was necessary, and the
divers used air supplies.
This early work by the two groups was in many ways compli—
mentary. Stenuit’s dive helped to conrm ideas formulated by
scientists such as U.S. Navy Captain Dr George Bond, who in 1957
carried out a series of simulated dives to 200 feet in a compression
chamber at the Naval Medical Research Laboratory, New London,
Connecticut. Subjects for these experiments in ‘saturation diving’,
as Bond called it, were small animals and some monkeys. Later
human volunteers followed, showing among other things that it was
feasible to breathe oxygen/helium mixtures for long periods without
any detectable ill—effects. The French divers for their part showed
conclusively that men could live and work under the sea without
any signs of physical or psychological discomfort, although some
medical problems such as gastric troubles did arise. Nevertheless,
Cousteau’s observations of the two men during their life away from
the natural environment of the land led him to comment, ‘I had the
impression that I belonged no more to the same team; they had
taken on another mentality, they were at home there, they were
actually doing their work with no reference to the surface. They
could stay and I had to go back. This was not my business any
longer.’
Since 1962 prolonged stays underwater have remained almost
entirely the prerogative of American and French groups. The
following year Cousteau’s group set up a more complex underwater
habitat 36 feet below the surface at the remote Sha’ab Rumi Reef
in the Red Sea. The dominating structure of this C onshe[f 2 project
was a starsh—like house which provided a home for ve men for a
month. The ve men breathed air but for a week two companions
living in a deeper base at 96 feet used a mixture consisting of oxygen,
nitrogen and helium. In 1964 Stenuit, now with a companion Jon
Lindbergh, lived for just over two days at a depth of 432 feet using a
rubber dwelling inated with a breathing mixture of 4 per
cent
oxygen and 96 per cent helium as a base. Shortly afterwards the US
.
Navy group made its rst entry into the eld with Sealab I. Located
at a depth of 192 feet off the Bermudan coast, four men used a
cigar-shaped cylinder, 3 5 feet long and 12 feet in diameter, as their
home for ten days. The men were supplied with a gas mixture of
The Last Resource
using the metal cylinder, named Diogène, as a home base for
excursions and work in the surrounding sea. Because of the com—
paratively shallow depth no decompression was necessary, and the
divers used air supplies.
This early work by the two groups was in many ways compli—
mentary. Stenuit’s dive helped to conrm ideas formulated by
scientists such as U.S. Navy Captain Dr George Bond, who in 1957
carried out a series of simulated dives to 200 feet in a compression
chamber at the Naval Medical Research Laboratory, New London,
Connecticut. Subjects for these experiments in ‘saturation diving’,
as Bond called it, were small animals and some monkeys. Later
human volunteers followed, showing among other things that it was
feasible to breathe oxygen/helium mixtures for long periods without
any detectable ill—effects. The French divers for their part showed
conclusively that men could live and work under the sea without
any signs of physical or psychological discomfort, although some
medical problems such as gastric troubles did arise. Nevertheless,
Cousteau’s observations of the two men during their life away from
the natural environment of the land led him to comment, ‘I had the
impression that I belonged no more to the same team; they had
taken on another mentality, they were at home there, they were
actually doing their work with no reference to the surface. They
could stay and I had to go back. This was not my business any
longer.’
Since 1962 prolonged stays underwater have remained almost
entirely the prerogative of American and French groups. The
following year Cousteau’s group set up a more complex underwater
habitat 36 feet below the surface at the remote Sha’ab Rumi Reef
in the Red Sea. The dominating structure of this C onshe[f 2 project
was a starsh—like house which provided a home for ve men for a
month. The ve men breathed air but for a week two companions
living in a deeper base at 96 feet used a mixture consisting of oxygen,
nitrogen and helium. In 1964 Stenuit, now with a companion Jon
Lindbergh, lived for just over two days at a depth of 432 feet using a
rubber dwelling inated with a breathing mixture of 4 per
cent
oxygen and 96 per cent helium as a base. Shortly afterwards the US
.
Navy group made its rst entry into the eld with Sealab I. Located
at a depth of 192 feet off the Bermudan coast, four men used a
cigar-shaped cylinder, 3 5 feet long and 12 feet in diameter, as their
home for ten days. The men were supplied with a gas mixture of