A cave dive to extreme depths to recover the body of a lost diver, the tragic outcome when things went wrong, the video showing the diver's final moments being put on the internet for all to see.
Thanks to Phillip French's gripping new book Raising the Dead, the full story of the death of Dave Shaw in Bushman's Hole, South Africa and of deep diving, where even the smallest breakdown in judgment or equipment spells trouble, can be told for the first time. And it makes a gripping read.
As much as it is a story of a heroic deed that went terribly wrong, it is also a tale of friendship, deep water daredevils and diving pioneers, and of the human spirit's desire to break free from the hum-drum and quest for exploration.
Dave Shaw had spirit in spades, but it was to sadly lead to his death.
The book details his tragic journey that started when he first learned to dive in his mid-40s. In just a short space of time underwater, he had become one of the world's most daring cave divers, taking equipment to new depths and pushing hard to expand the limits of human endurance.
His quest was to meet a tragic end when, in January 2005 he ventured 270m into the cold blackness of Bushman's Hole on a rebreather to recover the remains of a diver Deon Dreyer who was lost a decade before and whose body Dave had found on an earlier dive.
Recovering the body was an extraordinary feat of daring and danger and one Dave Shaw couldn't resist. At various points in the book it is hinted that the Christian Shaw felt a higher purpose was at work and even said he had dreamed about recovering the body.
But when a friend suggested it was a good thing he was doing, Shaw replied: "Let's face it, we're doing this for the hell of it."
Renowned dive instructor Don Shirley who followed his friend to the depths nearly lost his life and spent the next ten hours struggling to survive. The latter part of the book is as much about his desperate battle for life as it is about the death of his buddy.
My interest in the story was first piqued by Tim Zimmermann in his article of the same name in the Observer newspaper's Sport Monthly pull-out three years ago. That first introduced me to the term 'The Martini Effect', where the author equated the effects of nitrogen narcosis with supping glasses of Jame's Bond's favourite tipple on an empty stomach.
French introduces us to another, the 'Wah-wah' effect, or deafening noise that some divers hear when using air at greater depths and successfully manages to explain the technological and physiological aspects of deep diving with a clarity that helps break down the barriers of the science for both divers and non-divers alike.
Despite an ending that will come as no surprise to readers, it was still a gripping read and the conclusions it makes about Dave's death alone in the darkness reveals how fragile our existence is deep underwater and how the simplest of decisions can have far reaching consequences.
And it is easy to see the allure that such exploration and adventure has for divers. I was lucky enough to dive the Cenotes in the Yucatan, Mexico (more on that another time) and that short foray underwater and underground was a captivating experience.
Raising the Dead reminded me very much of to Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air about death and disaster on Everest and deserves similar success. Go get a copy.
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