MAJOR PROGRAM AREAS 19 



2. To determine the capability of divers to accomplish strenuous salvage work during 

 prolonged saturation dives. 



3. To perform subjective in situ tests and field evaluation of several new or modified 

 tools, systems, and techniques in 205 ft of water. 



4. To determine the feasibility of scuba-equipped divers to use these tools in deep water, 

 as compared with hard-hat divers. 



The general objectives were accomplished with considerable success. All assigned tasks 

 were performed during Team 3's tenure on the bottom. Diver tasks in general were per- 

 formed with dispatch and skill, and consistently in less time than had been programmed (Fig. 

 13). It was clearly demonstrated that the saturated diver, as a man, could handle the tools 

 employed and accomplish the tasks assigned. This is not, however, to say that the tools in 

 each case were optimum. Nor is it to say that all diver-support systems were satisfactory. 

 On the contrary, the lack of adequate diver-to-diver and diver-to-topside communications, 

 and the inadequate body-heating systems, hampered the divers in the accomplishment of their 

 tasks. That they nonetheless were able to perform satisfactorily further emphasizes the feasi- 

 bility of scuba-equipped saturated divers, operating from a bottom habitat, performing typical, 

 complicated, strenuous salvage tasks. 



Fig. 13. Aquanaut P. Wells injects buoyancy foam into an 

 aircraft hull during the Sealab II salvage evaluation 



BENTHIC LABORATORY 



The benthic laboratory (Chapter 43) as used in Sealab II, was an unmanned, remotely op- 

 erated electronics complex, housed in an oil-filled inverted dome, or "hive," mounted on the 

 sea floor near the Sealab habitat (Fig. 14). This complex was connected through a single co- 

 axial cable to the benthic control console one mile away on shore. 



