Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
Some first hand information by someone who was there, edited only for anonimity
of those whose permission was not
obtained to use their names.
Wendell
------- Start of forwarded message -
Diving in Whitefish was great, except for an incident on Saturday (not to
us). Below is my version of what happened, and below that is a newspaper
article from the Sault Ste. Marie paper.
We were diving from a small boat, so we geared up two at a time, and were
staggered slightly entering the water. I was in the second team, and the
first team was already up. I had my gear all packed away after the second
dive when the Mayday call came in. The third team was still in the water.
Another dive boat was on the Superior City (265') and had a diver that did
not ascend to do deco. The other diver was out of the water. We were the
closest boat with divers, although we were doing only recreational diving
and
had to wait for the last two divers to surface.
The research vessel, David Boyd, from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in
Whitefish Point, was on the water, with their ROV. Their ETA was one
hour.
The Coast Guard said they were going to send someone too (no ETA). We
were
there in half an hour of the call (about 5 pm).
We found an open boat, with a diver and a guy captaining the boat. I
asked
when and where the buddy had last seen the other diver, and I was told
that
the buddy had seen him at the ascent line. The missing diver had 800 PSI
more than he did. He started to ascend, thinking the other diver was
right
behind him. He said he saw his light, but then the light disappeared.
When
he got to the 20' bottle, he got worried when he didn't re-unite with his
buddy. The buddy said they were diving a 120 (single). I didn't ask, but
I
assume air.
When the David Boyd got there, the ROV was lowered into the water, and
found
the anchor line the boat had attached to the wreck. For some reason there
were two lines. I'm not sure why. One line was the boat's anchor line,
the
other could be a permanent mooring, or another line they used for
descending,
I don't have a good reason or answer for why there were two lines.
There was a stage bottle (with oxygen?) attached to their line at 20'.
The
missing diver was found face up on the deck of the boat (220' according to
the ROV's depth gauge). He was right by the line. Some cave line was
splayed out on the deck under him. Presumably they had attached a reel to
the anchor line to make sure they would find it on the way back.
The ROV grabbed his fin and started to raise him, trying to avoid getting
entangled in the two down lines. At what the ROV said was 70', but what
turned out to be 90', the diver was entangled in something. Two of our
group
were diving doubles and had about 1200 psi each left after two
recreational
dives. They went into the water to dump air out of the diver's suit and
guide him to the surface in case the ROV lost their grip. ____ had to cut
some cave line which was keeping him from being raised by the ROV.
Somewhere in here, the fin the ROV was gripping came off, and ___ and ___
did the rest of the job bringing the victim to the surface and towing him
to
the back of the David Boyd. There was no air in the BC, only in the
drysuit.
___ had dumped enough of that, so the body was under control when the
ROV
let go.
Just before the divers entered the water, the Coast Guard arrived and
provided a body bag. The rest of our group had been manning the cable for
the ROV, watching the video, assisting the divers getting in the water,
and
monitoring them on oxygen when they came out.
Obviously it put a damper on the weekend. A few people in our group had a
rough night. One of the divers in the water is second guessing herself,
thinking she could have done more. Unfortunately the diver was a recovery
situation by the time we even arrived on the scene. There was no more to
be
done than what we did. She and another diver chose not to dive on
Sunday..
The other four of us dove anyway.
It was a real god send that the ROV was available. No one wanted to
search
for a body in 265' of water. With the ROV, the hour or so it took to
locate
the body passed with all of us safe on the surface. It was lucky the body
was right at the ascent line. The search was short.
When we got back to the dock, I heard that the boat captain was the
victim's
brother. I also heard the two divers had about 2 years diving experience,
and that they had dived this season to 160', and last year to about 200'
(maybe they said 220'?). The victim was 26 with two children. I heard
they
were from somewhere near Traverse City, and had been dreaming of diving
this
wreck for a while. All or none of that might be true.
I saw the diver's equipment on the David Boyd right after it was removed
from
the victim. He dove a single tank (120, according to his buddy -- I
didn't
look closely at that), a 40 cu-ft pony (mounted as a pony bottle), and a
recreational BC with recreational length hoses and octopus/pony reg
retainers.
It didn't strike me as the equipment of someone with any training for deep
diving.
----
from the Soo evening paper....
06/25/01 Downstate man drowns in Whitefish Bay
WHITEFISH POINT - Chippewa County Sheriff deputies are continuing to
investigate a Whitefish Bay diving accident which claimed the life of a
downstate man.
The body of Scott M. Snow, 26, of Elmira was recovered in 230 feet of
water
at approximately 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Snow's body appeared to be caught in
the
wreckage on the bottom of the bay when it was recovered. Investigators are
still trying to determine the cause of the mishap and are apparently
planning
to revisit the site in an effort to get more answers.
According to reports, Snow descended upon the Superior City shipwreck site
with a companion diver at approximately 2:15 p.m. Saturday. The pair
explored
the wreckage for quite sometime, taking a number of photographs, before
the
companion dive started for the surface due to a shortage of oxygen. Snow
apparently was not directly behind his companion, but this separation
apparently was not unusual for the two diving partners.
When Snow failed to arrive at one of the decompression sites, his partner
grew more and more concerned, eventually shooting to the surface to warn
the
boat operator of the situation, before returning back to his
decompressions.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Chippewa County Sheriff Department responded to
the
call for help.
-
--
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