From the Montreal papers and talking to the outfitter I got the skinny on
what happened on the Empress of Ireland this past Sunday (August 4). Serge
Cournoyer, 33, of Sainte-Anne-de-Sorel drowned while during a
penetration of the Empress. He was said to have 10 years of
diving experience and knew the Empress well.
Cournoyer got separated from his dive buddy and did not surface at his
appointed time. A quick search was mounted by divers there on the scene
without any success. The Canadian Coast Guard was notified and they
called in local diver Danny Cyr. Cyr is a very experienced Empress diver.
He found him in an aft cargo hold. The hold is hard to enter but opens up
once inside. Siltouts are to be expected inside the wreck. Cournoyer did
not run a line. His tanks were empty. Divers in Canada like in the NE USA
now inspect equipment having long given up hope that authorities will make
determinations on cause of death. Cournoyer was wearing double tanks (no
manifold) and when regs were purged no air was in them. The poor
bastard sucked them dry.
Cournoyer was the fourth diver to drown on the Empress in the last 10 years.
Another one:
Despite the rising death toll, scuba divers can't
resist the sunken remains of the Empress of Ireland, a
master dive instructor said yesterday.
The site, in the waters just off Sainte-Luce-sur-Mer
near Rimouski, is as dramatic as it is dangerous, Dan
Foster, manager of the Pointe Claire dive shop Action
Scuba, said in an interview.
The drowning Sunday of another diver will not affect
his plans to tour the Empress this summer, Foster
said.
Serge Cournoyer, 33, of Sainte-Anne-de-Sorel, the
diver who drowned Sunday, was said to have 10 years
experience. He was the fourth diver to drown there in
the last 10 years.
Coroner Jean-François Dorval, who is to investigate
Cournoyer's death, has yet to report on the death of
Pierre Lepage, a diver who drowned at the site in June
2001. Lepage had about 100 dives under his belt.
The coroner said bad weather was a factor in the 1996
drowning of two divers who had almost 200 dives each.
Foster, who has done about 2,000 dives and is a master
scuba dive trainer, said that even experienced divers
should wait for near perfect conditions before
attempting to visit the Empress.
The depth of the wreck, the extremely cold water,
strong currents and variable visibility make it a
demanding dive, said Foster, who knows the particulars
of the site because of its fame, his desire to go
there and the fact that many of his friends have dived
there.
"It is well beyond the recreational levels of scuba
diving," he said.
Divers can first touch the wreck at about 90 feet but
the depth of the wreck extends below 130 feet, he
said.
Flat tide - between tides, a window of up to about 120
minutes a day - is the best time to dive because
currents are strong during changing tides, he said.
The Empress of Ireland, a luxury liner rivaling the
Titanic, was heading from Liverpool in May 1914 when
it collided with another ship in a heavy fog. The
liner sank in less than 15 minutes, killing 1,014
passengers and crew.
