General Sherman Wreck fatality - South Carolina

[TechDeep]

Wow. I own property in North Myrtle, and I've been diving with that operator for 20 years, going back to when they were operating at a different location. I've dived that wreck quite a few times. The biggest issue I normally face is who is going to be my insta-buddy as no one else in my family dives at the moment. I'm a bit surprised to hear that they would go out during a small craft advisory. In all the years I've been diving with them, I have never seen them do that. There have been times that they said no go when I wish they would have gone, but one can never be sure of all the things that may figure into that descision on any given day

I have always seen them as kind of a "no frills" operation for divers who just want to dive and aren't overly concerned about being pampered, which I would include myself in that group. The trade off being that the cost has always been kept reasonable in my opinion. Most of the complaints I've heard over the years have been about things that I would call "superficial".

Before I get jumped on, I in no way condone not having the proper safety gear on board, and properly maintained. There is no excuse for that, and it will catch up to you eventually. I have never really seen anyone in the crew on the dives I've been on that concerned me, but I've never had anything like this happen on any dive I've been on with them. All there divemasters and boat captains appeared to be more than capable, or I wouldn't have continued with them. I guess you just never know how someone is going to react until something like this happens. The safety equipment has got to be there and be maintained, and if that results in having to charge more per dive, so be it.

I've know Cameron for a long time, he has divemastered on some of my dives with them back in the 90's. Business concerns aside, I suspect this will be tough to deal with on a personal level if they in fact let things slide that they shouldn't have, and if they have been using divemasters and or captains that perhaps they shouldn't have been using. I'm just saying that in my own experiences with them, I never saw any evidence of that. I'm just relating personal experience, but I would not argue with the nurses on board. I'm not doubting for a minute that they saw what they said they saw.

Condolences to the young ladies family.

 

[Mike]

I have always seen them as kind of a "no frills" operation for divers who just want to dive and aren't overly concerned about being pampered, which I would include myself in that group. The trade off being that the cost has always been kept reasonable in my opinion. Most of the complaints I've heard over the years have been about things that I would call "superficial".

This is the evidence of the point I've made for years and years that stupid is as stupid does and cheap is as cheap does. It's absolutely a certainty in my mind that a cheap dive operation cuts corners everywhere, maintenance and safety are without a doubt part of the cost cutting areas that happen, those simply are a victim of any operation that operates on a shoe string and has to make financial decisions based on where to spend the small amount of dollars on overhead. They may not totally ignore safety, but as in the case shown here, safety concerns may get placed on the back burner temporarily, such as we need to fix the motor on one boat, a bad bilge pump on another and we need to recharge the oxygen on 2 boats, well lets fix the motor now because we can't take divers out without a motor and make any money, see if we can get the bilge pump working without replacing it and we will deal with the oxygen maybe next month or the month after, let me see who things go with the money. This is the stuff that goes on and the public and their customer never know about it until something unusual happens such as an accident. Avoid shoe string operations like the plague unless you're prepared to accept that what you don't see may come back to bite you.

I'll jump off the soap box now.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I've been on that exact dive, in all of 3-5' of viz, with that operator. I found the wreck when I landed on it.

I find this sad but not surprising. They were far from proficient nor did they enlist confidence.

 

[nofish]

my thing with this is were was the dm ? Im to go out wih them I think that i will will have to to pass.

 

[DandyDon]

From the way the news reporter conveyed the nurse's story, it sounds like maybe they tried tone O2 tanks and found it empty (been there, done that!), so the crew member tried the next one by just opening it, and when it starting expelling pure O2 - someone had the sense to tell him to throw it overboard before it'd explode.

my thing with this is were was the dm ? Im to go out wih them I think that i will will have to to pass.

Many dive Ops do not put a DM in the water, and many who do still do not run DM lead dives. You need to ask if that's important. Even on DM lead dives, I figure my bud & I are responsible for us.

 

[nofish]

You may be right. But Ive been out with them before and seen divers in trouble and russ was all over it. the crew was great. The bottom line it was a tragedy and my heart goes out to the family. I cannot understand how that the crew did not act and had to be told what needed to done. What no need for emgerancy action plan??

 

[kevziz]

I was on the boat diving with my wife when this accident occured. Divin'Hoosier, I have to say this was the exact conditions at that time. I had read the Sherman was an easy dive, but the viz was horrible (10ft at best) and there was a decent current. This was my first experience with the operator and I have to say...horrible even before the accident. Russ (Capt.), was way to militaristic. I felt like I needed to stand at attention as I did back in my military days. There's no pampering, and then there's just down right bad service. There was no checking on the divers on the boat. While being left alone might work for some divers, others need to be watched and assisted. As a DM myself, I like to ensure everyone is in working order prior to a dive. The dive briefing didn't ever mention safety including a diver recall. (Briefing was a military speech about how to board the vessel in which the Capt. repeated five times so the less smart divers might understand) There was only one DM aboard, with about 20 divers. There was a young rescue diver who was reported to be one of the crew. When my wife and I splashed in and started heading towards the anchor line, the tie in ran up towards the bow of the boat, and not down towards the anchor line. My wife and I let go and kicked to the anchor line due to following the tie in would have taken us way to close the bow of the boat and possibly hit. Since there was no recall procedure, the DM and rescue diver had to enter the water to get divers back on board leaving the Capt. to handle multiple issues at once. Capt. was assisting with CPR when I boarded the vessel. I have to back up the nurses story as the crew was very unprepared and struggled during the accident. Once aboard, my wife and I, along with three nurses on board provided CPR until the Coast Guard boarded the vessel. We attempted to provide O2 with no luck as the O2 didn't work. Apparently one of the crew threw one of the bottles of O2 of the boat. I really don't know if the O2 would have helped, but it wouldn't have hurt either.

I have thought long and hard about posting something negative about an operator. It can be tough business and not every day can be a good day. However, I mentioned to my wife prior to the accident how bad the operator was, and that a compliant might even be in order. After the accident, and the way the operator has handled things, I have to say I am down right mad at this point. Had a less militaristic briefing (with a diver recall procedure), not such a rush in the water (with better checks of divers entering the water), better rigging of the lines prevented the accident? That's a tough call, but deserves thought at least. Had there been O2 on board would it have made a difference? Again, tough call, but deserves thought.

Unfortunately, at a diver's expense, lessons can be learned from this accident and hopefully not repeated by this operator in the future. I hope that her family understands that we did the best we could in attempting to save her, and that our prayers go out to them.

 

[ahava]

Was there a diver even involved in this accident?? Haven't heard one thing about the situation that caused all of this. So far the only thing I have heard is about the dive operation and what they did or did not do. Personal responsibiltiy?? Where's the buddy? I have not dove with this operator,and maybe they were lacking, but everyone is sure quick to jump on them without a single mention of how the diver got into this situation.
Condolences to this lady and her family.

 

[openmindOW]

I once dove off a NC vessel when there was an incident. The O2 bottle was small and almost empty. Fortunately, no one died.

But the next several times I dove off the NC coast, I brought my own O2 kit.

 

[kevziz]

Yes, there was a diver involved. The viz was very limited on the hang line (Carolina Rig). I couldn't make out my wife until she was at least almost an arms length away. Total speculation on my part, but it appears she lost her weight belt while on the hang line. Possibly hit by the boat. Again, pure speculation. Her dive buddy reported never seeing her make it down to the wreck, and it was reported she was only in the water for around 10 mins. The conditions were poor, so there are several possibilities of what could have gone wrong. Until there is a determination of the cause of death, and even then we might not know. The focus on the operator is due to the inadequacies of the operation.