Twenty Three Years - The Rouses

[CamG]

Reading both accounts several times I can not deny the feeling of urgency to identify the wreck.
Even the dive that did identify the wreck was a reckless disregard of safety.
Im not judging or condemning anyones action it is their call but none the less well beyond protocol.
As I said not casting blame.

Wreck divers get fixated on achieving a perceived or clear objective, narcosis can only make this worse.
Depth is a cruel mistress, day to day / dive to dive it can turn on you creating a snowball that can only roll further down the hill.
Dive conditions are a huge consideration when doing decompression and I think this accident and many others emphasize how dangerous it can get once a problem occurs.
At the end of the day it becomes a personal call whether you dive or not.
Having been around a few hits it makes you far more conservative and to be honest a lot more likely to call a dive.

CamG

 

[Nuribromanski]

Reading both accounts several times I can not deny the feeling of urgency to identify the wreck.
Even the dive that did identify the wreck was a reckless disregard of safety.
Im not judging or condemning anyones action it is their call but none the less well beyond protocol.
As I said not casting blame.

Wreck divers get fixated on achieving a perceived or clear objective, narcosis can only make this worse.
Depth is a cruel mistress, day to day / dive to dive it can turn on you creating a snowball that can only roll further down the hill.
Dive conditions are a huge consideration when doing decompression and I think this accident and many others emphasize how dangerous it can get once a problem occurs.
At the end of the day it becomes a personal call whether you dive or not.
Having been around a few hits it makes you far more conservative and to be honest a lot more likely to call a dive.

CamG

i love confidence of 20/20 hindsight...ur so wise!

 

[manni-yunk]

Thank You for the post.


Despite a few attemps to reinvent history in this thread - the OP was great.


Remember - these guys were pioneers. I have the fortunate advantage of diving today with a few guys that dove with the Rouse's back then. They will all tell you that an air dive to that depth was common at the time and the transition to trimix was just starting to happen. In fact in many NE circles - the guys actually diving trimix were considered cavalier and risk takers.....

Im not defending the choice to dive air - only that criticing 23 years later with the benefit of 23 more years of experience, is very unfair to the legacy of this father and son team.

 

[chrisreedrules]

Finished up "The Last Dive" a couple weeks ago and passed it along to my wife to read. I want to read "Shadow Divers" next. Fascinating read and it not only tells the story of Chris and Chrissy Rouse, but it gives a brief history of diving, technical diving, and decompression sickness research as we now know it. I already want to read it again as a matter of fact.

As someone new to and completely enamored by scuba diving, it was an excellent read. Really shows what can happens when problems get stacked on top of one another. I am a pilot by trade so I'm no stranger to risk analysis / management and emergency / stressful situations (I've had a handful in my career). They say you are most likely to have an accident somewhere between 1,000 to 2,000 flight hours because you are comfortable enough to let complacency creep in.

It also brings to mind the story of the sinking of the HMS Bounty. The media labeled the Captain's decision to try and outrun a hurricane with a relatively inexperienced crew as reckless. And it very well may have been. But if you dig into the Captain's history (he had experience doing this and had faced far worse weather and storms before) there is no reason on the surface of it all that he should not have made this attempt. What it really came down to is that his own perceived experience gave him a false sense of capability.

You can make the "same dive", the "same flight", and set sail on the "same seas" a hundred times. But that experience does not inoculate you from the dangers and especially the complacency that can kill you. I know this thread is old but it is a good read nonetheless. Dive safe everyone!

 

[Russjstewart]

Finished up "The Last Dive" a couple weeks ago and passed it along to my wife to read. I want to read "Shadow Divers" next. Fascinating read and it not only tells the story of Chris and Chrissy Rouse, but it gives a brief history of diving, technical diving, and decompression sickness research as we now know it. I already want to read it again as a matter of fact.

As someone new to and completely enamored by scuba diving, it was an excellent read. Really shows what can happens when problems get stacked on top of one another. I am a pilot by trade so I'm no stranger to risk analysis / management and emergency / stressful situations (I've had a handful in my career). They say you are most likely to have an accident somewhere between 1,000 to 2,000 flight hours because you are comfortable enough to let complacency creep in.

It also brings to mind the story of the sinking of the HMS Bounty. The media labeled the Captain's decision to try and outrun a hurricane with a relatively inexperienced crew as reckless. And it very well may have been. But if you dig into the Captain's history (he had experience doing this and had faced far worse weather and storms before) there is no reason on the surface of it all that he should not have made this attempt. What it really came down to is that his own perceived experience gave him a false sense of capability.

You can make the "same dive", the "same flight", and set sail on the "same seas" a hundred times. But that experience does not inoculate you from the dangers and especially the complacency that can kill you. I know this thread is old but it is a good read nonetheless. Dive safe everyone!

Going off thread and dragging up history here and an almost 6 year old thread but one of the things that came out of the USCG hearings into the Bounty was that the ship was not fit to put to see in those conditions. Gcaptain had an interesting series of articles on the hearing that are worth a read, it reinforces that rarely does a single problem cause a disaster but a series of things do.

Bounty Hearing Day 1: Chief Mate Testifies

Editor’s Note: This is part 1 of Mario Vittone’s 8-part series from the U.S. Coast Guard’s formal hearing into the October 29, 2012 sinking of the tall ship Bounty off the...

gcaptain.com