Real Fear in a Dark Place

A Night Dive in a Sunken Ship

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

If you’re interested in pursuing a hobby like scuba-diving, it’s a good idea to get proper instructions from a professional instructor who can help you learn the safe way to do it. I did, way back when I was younger and looking for some real adventure. After completing my qualifying course I remembered to always have a dive-buddy go with me whenever I strapped on my dive gear and plunged into the deep. Having another diver join me always made my dive experience more fun. Safety is the primary reason for having a dive-buddy. You never know what kind of a situation you might get into under the water.

After about a year of arranging my own dive trips I joined a dive club in Dallas, Texas where I was living at the time. And, as a well-organized club we took many challenging trips to other exotic dive locations in Texas and nearby states. We also scheduled trips to the British Virgin Islands, Bahamas and Grand Cayman Islands; we had some wonderful times! On one of our trips to Grand Cayman I had a terrifying dive I’ll tell you about.

One night, after having a great meal at a local, Caymanian restaurant and eating some wonderful seafood cooked island-style, our group, about twelve of us, starting talking about a night dive on the shipwreck we had been diving on during the past couple days. The more we talked about it the more excited we became about gearing-up and doing it! So, we left the restaurant, went back to our motel and gathered our dive gear and waterproof flashlights. It was then I discovered I had not brought my light on this trip. So, I volunteer to tag along but stay on the boat and help the others with their gear. Two of my friends were excellent dive masters; one of them had been a Navy SEAL. He was a very experienced scuba diver. They invited me to come along, partnering with them and promised they would share their lights with me. It sounded safe enough at the time. Wrong! I should have listened to my better judgement but I didn’t!

Dropping down through the pitch black ocean, holding on to the anchor chain, was very exciting. My adrenalin was pumping big time as I sank deeper and deeper, hovering ever so close over my two dive mates. Their underwater lights provided powerful beams of bluish light that penetrated the depths and exposed the many sea creatures that only come out at night. I had made other night dives in the past but this was the most exciting by far! My imagination ran wild! We finally dropped to a depth of 110’ and were now on the sandy bottom able to reach out and touch the rusted, barnacled encrusted hulk of the old freighter. The old ship sank in a hurricane during the early 1900’s. Its hull was split apart in several places and allowed us a safe way to enter the ship and its many passage ways and rooms.

Barracudas, parrotfish and a small octopus scurried just ahead of us as we swam first into the galley and then down a flooded hallway to the crew quarters. I stayed close, very close, to my dive buddies not wanting to lose their light nor their attention. Nothing but rusty, steel beams, ceilings and walls covered in barnacles and sea sponges surrounded me. I had thought to pack my underwater camera with its flash attachment for my trip and was taking photos of what I was seeing as we swam further down into the bowels of the wreck.

A beautiful parrot fish came up to my dive mask and peered into my mask. We were eye-to-eye, and I raised my camera up to get a memorable shot of this little fish friend. My brilliant flash went off and the room lit up. Then, as the flash was gone it was back to total darkness. I could not see anything! I considered my eyes must have been temporarily blinded, and soon the light from my buddies would reappear and I would be able to see again. It didn’t and I couldn’t!

I reached out desperately to grab and arm or leg of at least one of my friends but they were not there! I was all alone in the total darkness of this old ship, down 110’ feet in this pitch black ocean. I started to panic grabbing at anything in the darkness. I screamed into the mouthpiece of my breathing regulator and thought…I’m going to drown!

Somehow, and I do claim the protection of angels that I do believe God assigns to those of us who trust Him, a sense of peace came upon me and I began to relax breathing only shallow breaths. This was to give my friends time to miss me and hopefully come back for my rescue. They did, thank you God!

They later told me they had lost sight of me when they were attempting to capture an octopus one of them wanted for an aquarium back home. When they couldn’t see me anymore they quickly turned around and swam back to the room where they had last seen me.

As they panned their lights in the dark rooms they found me there resting on the bottom, my bubbles gave them confidence that I was still alive and breathing. One of my buddies grabbed my hand wrapping my fingers around his ankle and then motioning we were going out of the ship and back up to our dive boat. I squeezed his ankle as hard as I could and signaled “OK!” and gave him a big thumbs-up.

Later, over a couple rum punches, we had some stress-relieving laughs and we declared this had been an experience none of us ever wanted to experience again.

Never again! I promised.