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Book Review: The Last Dive by Bernie Chowdhury
We had actually
bought this book about six months ago, but at the time I was already
behind in my reading so it was duly slipped into the ‘must read (but
sometime in the future) list’.
In my various readings since that time I would see every so
often a reference to the book or the deaths of the Rouses – the father
and son divers the subject of the book.
So six months on, my curiosity peaked, I finally opened the book
to find it surprisingly engrossing from the first paragraph to the
last. This is a must read.
For those of you who are not much for book reading, don’t be
daunted by the size of the book at first glance. It may be 346 pages,
but the print is at least twelve-point. The author’s writing style is
also an unaffected, flowing one that makes it easy to read. There are
twelve photos including the Rouses and the author, and a diagram of the
U-Boat, the site at which the fatal chain of events occurred.
The story centres around Chris Rouse and his son Chrissy, whose
diving careers spanned a mere four years, before they both died
following a dive to a recently discovered U-Boat. They were aged
thirty-nine and twenty-two respectively.
The highly committed and experienced pair of divers were
singular in their generosity to others, and the constant bickering and
taunting between themselves. They were knowledgeable and open to
adopting new practices and technology to improve the safety margin on
their dives. There appears to be no doubt however that they also
enjoyed challenging limits, and were pressing ever further into cave
and wreck diving.
The greater the risk however, the greater the price.
There are a number of lessons woven throughout this book, but it
doesn’t seek to preach. The lessons are there for those who wish to see
them.
The author also manages to interlace some interesting diving
history into the narrative, from the ‘Sandhogs’ of the late 1800s,
through advancements in scientific theory and mixed gas developments.
We are also introduced to personalities such as Sheck Exley and
Steve Berman; and are provided with some interesting first hand
accounts of diving sites such as the ‘Andrea Doria’.
The story is also littered with the accounts of those who have
suffered, or lost their lives in pursuit of diving or something
indefinable beyond.
The book can be read on a number of levels – a tragic story of a
father and son; as an examination of the personalities and developments
in cave and wreck diving in the late eighties and early nineties; or as
a text from which some valuable lessons can be learnt.
I highly recommend this book.
Bernie Chowdhury
Headline Book Publishing
London, 2000
We paid AUD $29.95, softcover
Buy The Last Dive : A Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean's Depths from Amazon.com (aff).