Dive Tales

It was one of those weekends that I should have been diving with my regular group in the Clyde but domestic commitments at home meant I had to give this particular trip it a miss..   With afternoon at home my attention was drawn listening to the local radio to the report of a diver missing and overdue in the Clyde.  Our group was there no it couldn’t be them? Anyway there would be loads of divers out in the Clyde this weekend. 
As the afternoon went on I popped on the TV and looked at the teletext and my attention was drawn to the heading “NW Diver Missing” details were starting to come out about the incident the diver still overdue had been diving a well known Clyde Ship wreck.
He was overdue, now whatever euphemism you want to use here the reality the grim scenario was he’d failed to surface. Maybe just maybe he had surfaced off the wreck and drifted off there was always the possibility wasn’t there he may be picked up later. ?
I listened and watched the news bulletins by the late afternoon “hopes were fading statements” were starting to feature in the reports.  It was reported the diver had been diving with a group on the *******  Well my buddies had been diving that I was now getting very concerned. I rang my regular buddy who I knew was there on the mobile, no reply if I could get hold of him I could put my mind at rest, anyway if there would have been a problem  likely someone would have rang. I heard nothing further that day.
 

 First thing Monday morning I made me usual call to see how the diving went, I could tell immediately in his voice something was wrong. Have you heard about Peter?
He related to me how the group had dived the wreck with a local diver who knew it like the back of his hand. The group had dived this wreck many times and were familiar with overall layout.
Peter and local dive buddy David commenced exploring the wreck making an active decision to stick to the outside. Peter was following David both navigating their way along the deck.  Dave made one of the regular checks to make sure Peter was behind and still in view.  Peter wasn’t there anymore, where had he gone? he was there a few minutes ago Dave backtracked to locate him where the hell had he gone?  Dave swam on meeting the rest of the group and gestured Peter was missing… Low on air it was decided to end the dive anyway Peter having lost his dive buddy would be back on the boat by now. Once on the surface Peter’s partner on the boat to everyone’s surprise and concern said he wasn’t on the boat, I thought he was with you? The awful realisation was now kicking in was he still on the wreck? they couldn’t go down on the wreck no air left. 
 

Its one of those situation that’s no one ever wishes to be in, they made a  short search of the area above the wreck, maybe he was on the surface having surfaced out of view of the boat, and drifted off it does happen.  A diver overdue call to Clyde coastguard who instigated a search, Peter wasn’t found.  The reality of the situation was all too apparent
The group stayed behind overnight and on the Monday afternoon the Police along with rebreather equipped navy divers visited the wreck site with details of where he was last seen ,no longer a rescue operation it was now a recovery.
Peter was eventually found tanks empty bcd inflated having swam one deck down via a companion way. The entrance to this particular route into the wreck hadn’t been discovered before and had been found by pure chance by the recovery divers.
No one knew it existed.  This was a new and obviously a fatal entrance.
 

At the funeral no one was really sure what had gone wrong, Yes he’d swam down into the wreck but why it wasn’t like him? Peter was a safety conscious diver and not considered as someone who took risks, if there was anyone who was less likely to take risks he was it, he wasn’t equipped for wreck penetration and knew it.
 An inquest was held all his equipment had been working however his umbilical torch fastened to him had been found flooded.