Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War IIIn the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm comes a true tale of riveting adventure in which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery–and make history themselves. For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was more than a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents, braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, navigating through wreckage as perilous as a minefield, they pushed themselves to their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than once in the rusting hulks of sunken ships. But in the fall of 1991, not even these courageous divers were prepared for what they found 230 feet below the surface, in the frigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey: a World War II German U-boat, its ruined interior a macabre wasteland of twisted metal, tangled wires, and human bones–all buried under decades of accumulated sediment. No identifying marks were visible on the submarine or the few artifacts brought to the surface. No historian, expert, or government had a clue as to which U-boat the men had found. In fact, the official records all agreed that there simply could not be a sunken U-boat and crew at that location. Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked on a quest to solve the mystery. Some of them would not live to see its end. Chatterton and Kohler, at first bitter rivals, would be drawn into a friendship that deepened to an almost mystical sense of brotherhood with each other and with the drowned U-boat sailors–former enemies of their country. As the men’s marriages frayed under the pressure of a shared obsession, their dives grew more daring, and each realized that he was hunting more than the identities of a lost U-boat and its nameless crew. Author Robert Kurson’s account of this quest is at once thrilling and emotionally complex, and it is written with a vivid sense of what divers actually experience when they meet the dangers of the ocean’s underworld. The story of Shadow Divers often seems too amazing to be true, but it all happened, two hundred thirty feet down, in the deep blue sea. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Robert Kurson's Pirate Hunters. |
From inside the book
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Page ix
... swam . This U - boat , I thought , could have come to within a mile or two of my house . I called John Chatterton and Richie Kohler , the two New Jersey divers , and asked if I might fly out to hear their story . We met at Chat ...
... swam . This U - boat , I thought , could have come to within a mile or two of my house . I called John Chatterton and Richie Kohler , the two New Jersey divers , and asked if I might fly out to hear their story . We met at Chat ...
Page 6
... swam by , and the whole room might cave in and bury you if you do . " Nagle had to discover all this by himself . It is one thing , wreck divers will tell you , to slither in near - total darkness through a shipwreck's twisted , broken ...
... swam by , and the whole room might cave in and bury you if you do . " Nagle had to discover all this by himself . It is one thing , wreck divers will tell you , to slither in near - total darkness through a shipwreck's twisted , broken ...
Page 11
... swam beautifully , somehow , in the way retired baseball greats still throw gracefully at old - timers ' games . But experienced divers noticed that his Doria dives had become less strenuous , that he wasn't quite going anymore where no ...
... swam beautifully , somehow , in the way retired baseball greats still throw gracefully at old - timers ' games . But experienced divers noticed that his Doria dives had become less strenuous , that he wasn't quite going anymore where no ...
Page 18
... swam around but did nothing more . The wreck was so dangerous , so terrifying , that he vowed never to return . On the same trip , Nagle recovered a two - hundred- pound wooden sign that read KEEP CLEAR OF PROPELLERS , the most ...
... swam around but did nothing more . The wreck was so dangerous , so terrifying , that he vowed never to return . On the same trip , Nagle recovered a two - hundred- pound wooden sign that read KEEP CLEAR OF PROPELLERS , the most ...
Page 37
... swam toward him to help . With narcosis raging , his dry suit con- stricting tighter , his body sinking farther , he breathed dry what he believed to be his second primary tank . His two partners reached him . One grabbed Drozd and ...
... swam toward him to help . With narcosis raging , his dry suit con- stricting tighter , his body sinking farther , he breathed dry what he believed to be his second primary tank . His two partners reached him . One grabbed Drozd and ...
Contents
Section 13 | 210 |
Section 14 | 210 |
Section 15 | 224 |
Section 16 | 239 |
Section 17 | 285 |
Section 18 | 311 |
Section 19 | 324 |
Section 20 | 336 |
Section 9 | 210 |
Section 10 | 210 |
Section 11 | 210 |
Section 12 | 210 |
Section 21 | 336 |
Section 22 | 337 |
Section 23 | 345 |
Other editions - View all
Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to ... Robert Kurson No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
aboard anchor line Andrea Doria artifacts Atlantic Wreck Divers began believed Bielenda bottom Brandt breathing Brennan Brielle called captain Cavalcante charter Chatterton and Kohler Chatterton told Chris Chrissy Civil Air Patrol Coast Guard commander conning tower crew crewmen Crowell deck decompression deep-wreck diesel motor room dive boat dry suit electric motor room eyes father feet Feldman fucking gear German gotta Guschewski Hans-Georg hatch Horenburg inside Jersey John John Chatterton kill knew Kohler asked later looked minutes moved Nagle Nagle's narcosis navy Nazi Nedel Neuerburg never numbers ocean patrol pulled radio Richie Kohler Richie's Rouses scuba Seeker SHADOW DIVERS ship shipwreck silt Skeets Skibinski submarine sunk surface swam swim tags tank terton thing told Chatterton told Kohler took torpedo torpedo room trimix trip U-Who underwater watch wheelhouse World War II Wreck Divers Yurga
Popular passages
Page ix - It is entirely conceivable that life's splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fulness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come. This is the essence of magic, which does not create but summons.
Page 120 - For a minute he danced like a child as he held the bag, twirling and kicking and punching Chatterton in the arm, looking away and then back again to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.
Page 121 - For a while, you and I were the only two people in the world who knew this was a U-boat. The only two in the world.
Page 118 - The bulkhead that connected the hatch to the submarine s body was blown out on the port side, a condition Chatterton knew must have resulted from a devastating force. He finger-walked forward, meticulously avoiding the forest of bent pipes, jagged metal, and traumatized electrical cables that blurted from walls and ceiling. The water inside the submarine was still, the particulates scarce and hovering. The submarine's ribs, intact and visible, arched across the curved ceiling. Chatterton was likely...
Page 107 - Chatterton asked for volunteers. It was no small request. The day was getting late and everyone's nerves were shot, a petri dish for narcosis. And no one could help Feldman, anyway. Many divers still had two or three hours of off-gassing obligation and could not get back into the water before dark. Nagle was in no physical condition to dive. That left just four or five candidates. Brennan shook his head. "The guys already dead,
Page 108 - The guys already dead," he told Chatterton. "I'm not getting bent or going lost to help a dead guy. I already almost drowned from Skibinski panicking, and I cut my deco short. The current is whipping now. There's nothing I can do for the guy. I'm not risking my life.
Page 50 - I have studied books. There are no submarines here. This is impossible. "You are on top of a submarine." "I'm narced." "There is no other shape like that torpedo. Remember those rolled edges you saw on the hull, the ones that looked built for gliding? Submarine. You have just discovered a submarine.
Page 102 - Fuck!" while the jungle drums of narcosis began their stampede and he tried to replace the regulator in Feldman's mouth but that mouth just hung open, which confirmed that Feldman wasn't breathing and Skibinski screamed, "Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck!" and Feldman only kept staring at him and Skibinski's head pounded harder and he breathed harder, which made the needle on his air supply drop. Skibinski wrapped his left arm around Feldman. Questions whizzed through his brain: Should I inflate Feldman's suit...
Page 105 - Then, before anyone could assist him, he pitched forward and fell face-first onto the Seeker's wooden deck, a three-foot fall. Chatterton, Nagle, and Lombardo rushed to the mumbling diver, believing he might have broken his neck. They moved Skibinski gingerly, trying to remove his gear. Skibinski could only say, "He's dead! I couldn't breathe! My regulator! He's dead! Chatterton removed the diver's hood. Skibinski was covered in vomit. "Paul, listen to me," Chatterton said. "Did you do your decor"...
Page 110 - But he had just one thought as he climbed into bed, and that thought hung over him until morning: he had to replace Feldman on the next trip. Brennan called back the next day and told Kohler the whole story. At the end, Kohler spoke frankly; the men were tight and always Brooklyn direct with each other. "Kevin, you gotta get me on the next trip.