Dating to October 1968, this raw footage shows Sealab III being moved out of San Francisco Bay towards its destination — 185 meters below the ocean surface near San Clemente Island, California. The film begins with footage of the Golden Gate Bridge before showing Sealab III (:55) on a barge, being towed by USS Cahokia (ATA-186), a Sotoyomo-class auxiliary fleet tug. At (3:00) two unknown men with 16mm movie cameras shoot footage of Sealab on its way out the Golden Gate. The man at (2:35) is holding a Bell & Howell Filmo type 16mm camera. At (5:30) there is an aerial shot of the barge under the Golden Gate Bridge, followed by additional shots of the barge transiting the San Francisco Bay.

SEALAB III used the refurbished SEALAB II habitat, but was placed in water three times as deep as the original SEALAB II experiment. Five teams of nine divers were scheduled to spend 12 days each in the habitat, testing new salvage techniques and conducting oceanographic and fishery studies. In February 15, 1969, SEALAB III was lowered to 610 fsw (185 m), off San Clemente Island, California. The habitat soon began to leak and four divers were sent to repair it, but they were unsuccessful. During the second attempt, aquanaut Berry L. Cannon died. The SEALAB program came to a halt, and although the SEALAB III habitat was retrieved, it was eventually scrapped.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com