"Shadow Divers" Revisited

[RJP]

I first read "Shadow Divers" several years ago when I was just doing my OW certification, when most of it was way over my head.

I'm currently listening to "Shadow Divers" as an audio book... after a few years of tech/deep/deco/overhead/wreck training and diving off the coast of NJ on a weekly basis. Today, on the drive home from work I couldn't finish listening to the section about Chris and Chrissy Rouse.

I knew that part was coming, having read the book. And I knew how it turned out, of course. But now that I know exactly what was going through the minds of everyone involved, and the certainty of those thoughts? It was too much to listen to. I literally had to turn it off and pull into a parking lot.

Be careful out there folks. Be careful.

 

[pir8]

I should re read that book.

 

[Kern]

I first read "Shadow Divers" several years ago when I was just doing my OW certification, when most of it was way over my head.

I'm currently listening to "Shadow Divers" as an audio book... after a few years of tech/deep/deco/overhead/wreck training and diving off the coast of NJ on a weekly basis. Today, on the drive home from work I couldn't finish listening to the section about Chris and Chrissy Rouse.

I knew that part was coming, having read the book. And I knew how it turned out, of course. But now that I know exactly what was going through the minds of everyone involved, and the certainty of those thoughts? It was too much to listen to. I literally had to turn it off and pull into a parking lot.

Be careful out there folks. Be careful.

They just don't make Americans like they used to. :mooner:

 

[wrybosome]

I have that on audio too. The reader is pretty good on that one.

Most of what the Rouses were doing is still over my head and I find it frightening anyway. It's easy to imagine being in a situation where you have no good choices available, so yeah, definitely be careful out there.

 

[Scott L]

It was a very close but strange father and son relationship. It almost made me mad the last time I read an account of that dive which should have been scrubbed...

 

[flots am]

It was a very close but strange father and son relationship. It almost made me mad the last time I read an account of that dive which should have been scrubbed...

Some people consider the group heros. I consider them reckless thrill-seekers.

Not surprisingly, you only get so many chances to kick Darwin in the balls before he comes for you. And he did.

It's just a freaking wreck. It's not worth ruined marriages and three deaths.

flots.

 

[Mike Boswell]

I enjoyed the book, and I felt badly about the divers who died. But they knew the risks and took them willingly. It is the friends, families, and other folks around them that I felt badly for.

I used to take risks when I was younger, but at some point I realized that it just wasn't fair to others. When you risk your own safety, you also risk the happiness and wellbeing of your family and your friends, and the safety and wellbeing of the divers and rescue personnel that may have to assist you.

So now I try to follow the rules, out of an awareness that I have no right to put others at risk for my own selfish enjoyment. I call it "growing up". The Rouses never got the chance.

 

[waterpirate]

I read that book several years ago also. Now that I dive tech lite and know what I did not know then it makes me shudder. I do not plan on reading or hearing that account again, ever. Once you go tech you meet real people close to you that you dive with often. I can't imagine the mental bullsh*t that the other people involved in these incidents carrywith them.
Eric

 

[Steve50]

Most of what the Rouses were doing is still over my head ....

Their's too ...

 

[burna]

I've just read Shadow Divers for the first time but there is something I just don't understand.

In chapter 8 (page 183), Chatterton receives a phone call from a U-boat enthusiast who tells him that the Horenberg knife is a dead end. He indicates he has been speaking to Horenberg and that he is alive.

"The knife is a dead end Mr Chatterton. You have to go back to the wreck."
"What do you mean it is a dead end?"
"There was only one man in the U-boat service named Horenberg.And he never served in the western Atlantic."
"What U-boats did he serve on?"
"He doesn't remember."
..."Horenberg is alive?"
"He's alive" the man said.
"He survived the sinking?"
"I didn't say that."
"What did Horenberg say?"
"He said it's a dead end."
"What's a dead end?"
"The knife. He doesn't remember the knife."
"What else did he say?"
"Forget it Mr Chatterton. You should move on."
"Wait a minute. I would like to speak to Horenberg --"
"That's impossible. He talks to nobody."
"Please tell him I'd like to speak to him..."
"He doesn't want to talk."
"Can you at least tell me what U-boat he was on?"
"He doesn't recall anything. You need to go on from here."

Later, in the Epilogue (page 354-55), Guschewski tells Kohlor about how his sickness just prior to the boat sailing forced him stay in hospital and how the crew came to visit him. Horenberg was among them which indicates he was on the boat when it sailed. He also is listed on the crew list, whereas Guschewski is not, also indicating Horenberg was on the vessel when it sailed.

So...if he was on the U-boat when it sailed and no one survived the sinking, how could the U-boat enthusiast have spoken with him to be told the knife was a dead end? Or was this 'enthusiast' just providing bogus info?

Is there something that I have missed here??