Tales of the Deep

August 3, 2005 12:21 PM

In the August edition of Outside Magazine, Tim Zimmerman chronicles the story of divers Deon Dreyer and Dave Shaw. Dreyer, a 20-year-old experienced diver, died in 1994 while exploring Bushman's Cave in Boesmansgat, South Africa, the third deepest cave in the world. In October 2004, Dave Shaw, while diving to the bottom of Bushman's Cave, discovered the body of Deon Dreyer and, tying a line to him, promised to recover the body for Dreyer's family. A few months later, in January 2005, Shaw died in the attempt, unintentionally filming his own death. Both bodies have since been recovered.
posted by Moral Animal (20 comments total)

I got a dead link there: filming his own death
posted by jsavimbi at 12:37 PM on August 3, 2005

You listened to Talk of the Nation today too, eh?
posted by keswick at 12:40 PM on August 3, 2005

If the above filming his own death link doesn't work for you (it does for me), try this. It's very similar.
posted by Moral Animal at 12:41 PM on August 3, 2005

You listened to Talk of the Nation today too, eh?

Of course. I figured I'd let the less privileged people know about the story, too.
posted by Moral Animal at 12:42 PM on August 3, 2005

What's the point of risking one own life to recover some-body who is without any doubt very much dead ? Ok it's job wasn't the safest and he knew certainly about the risks , he could have died in many other risky situations ..but what the hell.
posted by elpapacito at 12:43 PM on August 3, 2005

Anyone know of a way to watch this account? The titles in the article didn't show up on my TiVo.
posted by agregoli at 12:48 PM on August 3, 2005

I believe it will be shown on ABC, Australia's public broadcasting channel, not ABC, the American Broadcasting Company.
posted by sdrawkcab at 1:06 PM on August 3, 2005

What's the point of risking one own life to recover some-body who is without any doubt very much dead ?

Chivalry.
posted by Eamon at 1:07 PM on August 3, 2005

Chivalry is dead, it seems.
posted by bondcliff at 1:10 PM on August 3, 2005

Mountain Climbers and Cave Divers: two groups risking their lives on a voluntary basis, then attaching mystical significance after the fact.
posted by craniac at 1:18 PM on August 3, 2005

God, this is depressing. Imagine how Dreyer's family feels now.
posted by selfnoise at 1:21 PM on August 3, 2005

And cave divers have an inflated sense of camaraderie and brotherhood, so one could argue that Shaw's recovering of Dreyer's body was more like him recovering that of his brother.
posted by Moral Animal at 1:22 PM on August 3, 2005

More links:

Here's Dreyer's family's reation.

And more information from Tim Zimmerman's website.
posted by Moral Animal at 1:26 PM on August 3, 2005

Let's try this again: Tim Zimmerman's website.
posted by Moral Animal at 1:28 PM on August 3, 2005

The obvious, morbid question: anyone have a link for the death video?
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 3:08 PM on August 3, 2005

anyone have a link for the death video?

This story, including segments of video shot from outside the cave while the dive was going on and some (fairly graphic) underwater footage from the helmet cam was on Nightline on July 15th (and it was one of the better Nightlines I've seen in a while).

You might be able to track down a copy of the episode.
posted by toxic at 3:17 PM on August 3, 2005

here
posted by keswick at 3:29 PM on August 3, 2005

I read this earlier today and it really stuck with me. What an interesting story, thanks for the link.
posted by nervousfritz at 8:25 PM on August 3, 2005

This was shown on Australian Story in may. One of their better efforts.
posted by polyglot at 4:47 AM on August 4, 2005

Mountain Climbers and Cave Divers: two groups risking their lives on a voluntary basis, then attaching mystical significance after the fact.

Office drones and corporate hacks: two groups selling their lives to others and sitting under flourescent lights all their lives voluntarily, then buying motorcycles and cheating on their wives in their 50s after they realize they've wasted their youths.

I mean, really, what are you trying to say here, that people shouldn't push their limits? Sort of a lame judgement, don't ya think?
posted by spicynuts at 6:06 AM on August 4, 2005