Berry Cannon & Sealab III, 50 years ago today

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Akimbo

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Berry L. Cannon was a civilian member of Team 1 on the US Navy's Sealab III. He was also an "Aquanaut" on Sealab II. The Sealab III habitat was sitting on the bottom at 610' (185M) off San Clemente Island, 52 miles (83 Km) off San Diego -- nearly three times deeper than Sealab II.

Cannon and Bob Barth were locked out to repair Helium leaks around electrical cables penetrating the Sealab habitat. Barth was working to open Sealab's entry hatch around 0500 when Cannon began to convulse.

This video shows the Sealab III Habitat, PTC, and the Mark IX semi-closed rebreathers. The problem that led to Berry Cannon death is shown around the 24:30 mark.

Barth struggled to save Cannon near the hatch with no success. He brought him back to the PTC (bell) with great difficulty. The PTC hatch was sealed after all divers were inside; the PTC was raised back to the moonpool, and mated to the chamber. Efforts to save Cannon continued in the PTC. Cannon was lowered into the DDC (chamber) where the medical team confirmed that he was dead after making observations through the viewports and conferring with the team inside. The decision was made to bring the body back to the surface in the outer lock while the rest of the team remained at depth in the inner lock. The body was returned to the San Diego Naval Hospital (Balboa).

News agencies reported everything from electrocution to a heart attack caused Cannon's death. Findings of the board of inquiry cited Carbon Dioxide poisoning as the official cause of death. One of several Mark IX semi-closed rebreathers was found to have an empty CO2 absorbent canister, though it was not known if that unit was worn by Cannon.

Hypothermia is a likely contributing factor, if not the causal factor. It is important to understand that the body was seriously compromised by explosive decompression and elapsed time, making an autopsy difficult.

The PTC was not heated and the water temperature was about 40° F (4.4° C) so the divers were very cold before getting the hatch open. Shirt-sleeve comfortable would be around 88° F (31° C) at that depth in a HeO2 environment. The hot water supply umbilical wasn't properly insulated or sized resulting in water arriving at the diver well under the requisite 2½ GPM (9.5 LPM) at 110° F (43° C). The "hot water" was so cool and slow running that Barth and Cannon didn't even connect the hose to their loose fitting suits knowing it would make them even colder.

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Berry Cannon at the hatch of one of the DDCs aboard the USS Elk River, IX-501.

The Mark IX's breathing resistance at depth was very high by modern standards and the gas was unheated. Semi-closed systems were effectively abandoned after Sealab in favor of open circuit Kirby Morgan Band Masks and surface-based closed-circuit recycling systems about 15 years later.

The official findings were less than plausible to many divers on Sealab. The Baralyme Carbon Dioxide absorbent weighed 18 Lb (8KG). That much difference in weight would be noticed by the support crew and divers, especially after handling one with absorbent immediately after or before a "packed" rig. Even more important is the diver would notice being too buoyant as soon as they dropped through the hatch.

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Berry Cannon Backgrounder

Berry Cannon was born on 22 March 1935, making him less than a month short of his 34th birthday on that fateful day. Cannon served in the US Navy as a Mineman, leaving after four years as Second Class Petty Officer (E5). He received his Bachelor's Degree in Electronic Engineering in 1962 from the University of Florida.

He designed communications systems at Navy Mine Defense Laboratory in Panama City, Florida, which led to assignment to the Sealab program. He spent 15 days saturated on Sealab II in La Jolla, California at 205' (62M) in 1965.

Cannon's funeral was held in Chula Vista, California, on February 19. He was buried at Wacahoota Baptist Cemetery in central Florida, while the rest of Sealab's Team 1 was decompressing aboard the Elk River. He was married with three sons.


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Sealab III Habitat

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The Sealab III habitat was an extensive modification of Sealab II. The cylindrical pressure vessel and primary living space was 12' (3.7M) in diameter and 57' 6" (17.5M) long. Two unpressurized flat-sided compartments were added at both ends that measured 12' (3.7M) square x 7' 6" (2.3M) tall. The dry launch-ready weight was about 300 tons.

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The habitat was recovered from the bottom of Wilson Cove and was later scrapped. It was understandably determined that habitat-based saturation diving was "incompatible with the needs of the US Navy". This conclusion has proven valid for all saturation diving except for very limited and shallow scientific operations.

Mark II Mod 0 Deep Diving System

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Sealab III was supported by the Mark II Mod 0 Deep Diving System installed aboard the USS Elk River. The saturation diving complex consisted of two independent double-lock DDCs (Deck Decompression Chamber) and PTCs (Personnel Transfer Capsule), which is Navy parlance for a saturation diving bell. The complex was rated for 850' (259M) and each normally supporting four divers. PTC Excursions were supported to over 1,000' (305M). Each DDC measured 7' (2.1M) in diameter x 24' (7.3M) long.

The PTC supported up to four people; two divers, a standby diver, and the operator. The hull was a 7' (2.1M) diameter sphere with a 1' (305mm) tall cylindrical band separating the two hemispheres. Large high pressure gas cylinders, a transformer housing, and emergency battery housing were vertically mounted around the pressure hull.

USS Elk River IX501

The Elk River was converted from a surplus rocket firing amphibious support ship built for World War II. The 206' 3" (63M) vessel was cut in half and extended to 225' (68.6M). Sponsons were welded to both sides increasing her beam from 34' 6" (11.1M) to 50' (15.2M).

The increased size was largely consumed by the 55' (25M) x 9' (4M) moonpool used to launch the two PTCs. It could theoretically support a DSRV (Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle), but was never tested. A massive gantry crane weighing 130,000 Lbs (59,000 Kg) was used to transfer one bell at a time between the chamber mating trunk, moonpool, and maintenance stand.

The Elk River became the Navy's saturation diver training school in 1973, after the OpEval culminated in a lockout at 1010'/308M. She became a barracks craft in October 1986 and struck from the Naval Register on 13 August 1999. She was sunk as a target on 24 February 2001.

Personal Connection
As many of you know, I had the good fortune to be assigned to the Mark II Mod 0 Deep Diving System as a diver and electronics technician about three years after the accident. Two of our Master Divers and the team leader on my first saturation dive were Sealab III veterans. I spent hours talking with Chief Cyril Tuckfield who ran the Diving Locker, participated in the Sealab program from the beginning, and made the buoyant ascent with Dr. George Bond from the U.S. Navy submarine USS Archerfish at 302' (92M).

All of the Sealab vets I spoke with were reluctant talk about the loss of Berry Cannon. It was apparent that they worked incredibly hard on Sealab III, felt a great loss over the death of their friend, and the cancellation of the Sealab program. None of them felt that Paul Wells was responsible for Cannon's death, the man blamed for the empty CO2 canister by the board of inquiry.

My conclusion is that the timeline, budget, and resources allocated to the program were grossly underestimated. The difficulty of a 3x depth increase was outside everyone's experience. Jacques Cousteau's Conshelf III had already made a successful saturation dive to 336' (102.4M) and Ed Link's SPID habitat (Submersible, Portable, Inflatable Dwelling) to 432' (132M). I "suspect" that there was political pressure to exceed these open sea records.

Sealab I was at 192' (59M) in tropical water off Bermuda and Sealab II was only a little deeper at 205' (62M), but in cold water off La Jolla California. Both were in range of surface-based Scuba divers. Sealab III could only be reached by saturation divers using the most advanced deep diving system built at that time. The Mark II was extremely complex and minimally tested. It also suffered from many fundamental flaws, which are not surprising with such an early design.

IMHO and with the benefit of all the hard lessons learned since those pioneering days, the whole project was a disaster-in-waiting. Fatalities were inevitable. It said a lot about the dedication and motivation an exceptional group of people that the project made it that far with only one casualty.

I came aboard the system close the end of a major refit of the Mark II and Elk River. Our mission was to perform the OpEval (Operation Evaluation) of the system. We had an enormous budget and I never sensed that the effort was rushed. Two new catamaran ASRs (Auxillary Submarine Rescue ships) were planned with Mark II sat systems aboard. We still had to do a lot of testing, innovating, modifying, and repairing to complete the OpEval. Over three years of work after Cannon's death and millions of dollars is a good indication what was required to make the system safe.


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The catamaran hulled USS Pigeon, ASR 21, was in service from 1973-1992. Her sister Ship was the USS Ortolan, ASR 22.

The great majority of the cumulative knowledge presented in diving classes at all levels resulted from accidents that scared the hell out of, injured, or killed someone. Thanks to all the pioneers the preceded me, living or not.

Recommended Hardcopy Publications

Sea Dwellers: The Humor, Drama, and Tragedy of the U.S. Navy Sealab Programs by Bob Barth, Navy Diver

Papa Topside: The Sealab Chronicles of Capt. George F. Bond, USN by George F Bond (Author), Helen a Siiteri (Editor)

Sealab: America's Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor by Ben Hellwarth, ScubaBoard's @SEALAB Author Ben H.

ScubaBoard Footnotes

SeaLab by Ben Hellwarth

Lessons from SEALAB and a golden age

Walter F. Mazzone, a top SEALAB officer, dies at 96

What is Saturation Diving?


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'The great majority of the cumulative knowledge presented in diving classes at all levels resulted from accidents that scared the hell out of, injured, or killed someone. Thanks to all the pioneers the preceded me, living or not. '
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A very profound statement !

SO true ...So very true

It began for recreational divers when Cousteau's bubble machine arrived in the US in 1948 - a new world was opened up for exploration and discovery with unique rules for exploration.

Thanks so much for the history lesson and your life time of involvement

Sam Miller, 111
 
Thanks for sharing.
 
Thanks for this dive in the origins of saturation diving. Amazing footage!

Was there any kind of pO2 monitoring and recording in the Mark II?
The mention of convulsion suggests O2 toxicity...
As far spitting out the mouthpiece, I guess this is because there wasn't any gag- strap installed on it?
 
Was there any kind of pO2 monitoring and recording in the Mark II?

We had Teledyne galvanic fuel cells for Oxygen and Dräger tubes for CO2 in the PTC when I was onboard. Teledyne for O2 and a gas chromatograph for the chambers. I suspect that they used Beckman analyzers during Sealab since there was a pile of them in the dive locker.

The mention of convulsion suggests O2 toxicity...

Maybe, but lots of other things can cause convulsions including electrocution. Cannon was working on electrical penetrators. The semi closed circuit rebreathers were dumb, strictly mechanical. I am amazed they they both could function at all considering hypothermia.

As far spitting out the mouthpiece, I guess this is because there wasn't any gag- strap installed on it?

No gag straps, not that they would have made much difference. We now know that everyone would have developed pneumonia had the Sealab project started because they didn't have heaters for the breathing gas. Their hot water suits probably would have been OK. I was told that the hot water hose in the habitat's umbilical was adequately insulated. The one they jury-rigged to the Mark II PTC (bell) was not.

Nobody expected lockouts from the PTC to be more than a few minutes while transiting to and from the habitat. The system was not designed to repair the habitat before it could be occupied.
 
Amazing story and fascinating, if tragic, video. Thanks very much for posting this.
 
This issue of The Journal of Diving History includes a dedication to Barry Cannon and covers quite a bit of history on the Sea Lab program.
 

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