SeaLab III films, 1968-1971 (SMC 85)

OFF-SITE STORAGE: COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS.
Restrictions: Original film formats are restricted. Viewing copies may be available.

Extent: 1 Linear feet (1 record carton)

Digital Content

Selected materials from the collection have been digitized. Items available online by clicking on the links in the finding aid.

A collection of six films documenting the U.S. Navy's SeaLab III project off the California coast.

For information on the SeaLab Project, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEALAB.

A collection of six films documenting the U.S. Navy's SeaLab III project off the California coast, and Navy recruitment of "aquanauts," the men who staffed the experimental underwater labs.

Several Special Collections & Archives holdings touch on the topics of underwater manned research stations, submersible technology, and SeaLab. For best results, keyword search across our finding aid holdings on the SC&A website. The collections listed here contain related files, and films:

Earl Murray Papers (MSS 772)

UC San Diego. Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Communications Office records (SAC 13)

Man in the sea: The story of SeaLab II

Sixty days beneath the sea: Tektite I

Seapower for Security: Oceanographer of the Navy reports

Provenance

These films were collected by Lawrence W. Hallanger, a scientist at the Ocean Engineering Department of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Pasadena, California in the 1970s.

Container List

FILMS

Box 1 Folder 1
BTV (Buoyant Transport Vehicle) footage, ca. 1968

1 film reel (8 min., 45 sec.) ; silent, color. Preservation surrogate is time-reversed (backwards). The BTV was a vehicle designed for use in SeaLab III.

Box 1 Folder 2
DEEPSTAR camera observes SeaLab III DIVERCON anchor placement, ca. 1968

1 film reel (18 min., 3 sec.) ; silent, color. This film was made using the DEEPSTAR submersible on a dive at the SeaLab III site to observe the DIVERCON 1 underwater construction experiment.

Box 1 Folder 3
Buoyancy Transport Vehicle: The undersea forklift, 1968

1 film reel (10 min., 7 sec.) ; sound, color. Produced by Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory, Port Hueneme, California.

Box 1 Folder 4
100 fathoms deep: SeaLab III, ca. 1971

1 film reel (30 min., 15 sec.) ; sound, color. Presented by the Deep Submergence Systems Project of the US Navy; produced by SeaLab III Command Information Bureau. Directed by Robert H. White. Shows footage of the SeaLab III habitat, divers, aquanauts, and ends with a statement by the program manager, Captain William Nicholson.

Box 1 Folder 5
DIVERCON 1: NAVFAC/NCEL underwater construction experiment, 1968

1 film reel (15 min., 7 sec.) ; sound, color. US Navy technical film report on SeaLab III, produced by Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory, Port Hueneme, California.

Box 1 Folder 6
The Aquanauts, 1971

1 film reel (15 min., 44 sec.) ; sound, color. Produced by Naval Undersea R&D Center for the Deep Submergence Systems Project. Reviews process of selection and training of Navy aquanauts for SeaLab experiments. Significant red-shifting, poor condition.