Has Anybody Read This Book?

When I was in high school, probably around 1978 or so, I read a book.

I don’t remember the name of it, nor do I remember the author, but I‘d really like to read that book again. If I can only find somebody who knows what I’m talking about and can give me the missing information!

The basic story is about a man. He’s a very rich man – perhaps the owner of a factory or a big building. He gets burned in a fire, and ends up retreating from society because of the scars. He automates his factory – or building – to the point where he lays everybody off; now it’s just him in the building.

He goes out at night when everybody else is asleep, and comes across a zoo that has been emptied out, all except for a seal that has somehow been abandoned (like that would ever happen in real life!). He befriends the seal and takes it back “home” with him.

He nurses it back to health, builds a huge tank for it, and basically heals a part of himself in the process of taking care of the injured animal.

One day, he decides to take the seal for a swim in the actual ocean. The seal has such a good time he realizes that it needs to be set free. So he goes about having an underwater house built for himself so he can go live with his seal.

One thing leads to another, and you find yourself in the Marianas Trench with the guy and his seal. The trench is so deep that the oxygen bubbles from his scuba gear go down instead of up, leading the man in the wrong direction. He runs out of oxygen and becomes disoriented even further – and winds up taking his mask off.

Does this sound familiar to anybody? Can anybody tell me the title and author of this book?

Anybody?