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'He's not coming up'
09/01/2005 10:16 - (SA)
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| File photo of Dave Shaw explaining how Deon Dreyer' body will be brought to the surface. (Frans Coetzee, Volksblad)
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Boesmansgat - In a thick Australian accent, Dave Shaw's first words to me on Thursday evening were: "How you doin', mate."
He reminded me somewhat of Captain Haddock from the Tintin comics. He smiled briefly but seemed focused and pre-occupied with the task that awaited two days later.
He would be diving to a depth of 270m to attempt to recover the body of Deon Dreyer who drowned at Boesmansgat in December 1994.
The next day a relaxed and confident-looking Shaw showed us the rebreather he would be using on his descent into Boesmansgat on Saturday morning.
It was stowed away under a ledge several metres from the water's edge.
It was a Mark-15 Five, non-magnetic because it had originally been designed for use by Navy divers when defusing mines.
Talking to him, I had the impression that the dive had already been successfully concluded.
He showed us the knife he would be using to free Deon Dreyer's body of his gear. There would be no problem cutting through the material with it, Shaw said.
His thermal underwear hung from a tree branch.
He would be wearing it under his dive suit to help him stay warm at the extreme depth where the temperature was as low as 18 degrees.
He showed us his two 10 watt lights, each with a battery pack lasting four hours.
The mixture of gases he would be breathing was regulated electronically.
There were further electronics to back those up in case of a malfunction.
Shaw also had the option of switching to manual in case of an emergency.
Despite all of these precautions and calculations, something went wrong on Saturday morning.
Shortly after 06:00, Shaw's team-mate Don Shirley descended to 250m to look for his light but saw nothing.
Around 09:00 on Saturday Andries van Zyl, the owner of the Mount Carmel farm on which Boesmansgat is located, drove to where reporters were waiting.
He stopped and looked at us in silence for a few moments. He shook his head.
"The shit has hit the fan," he said. "Dave's not coming up."
The Star reporter Jonathan Ancer's face froze.
I felt a knot in my stomach.
For several minutes I hoped Van Zyl had been misinformed or was exaggerating.
As the day wore on, police officers told us that "things were going to plan" and "things are very bad down there".
Perhaps Shaw wanted to retrieve Dreyer because he wanted a challenge. Perhaps he wanted to help the Dreyer family overcome their loss. Perhaps it was a combination of both.
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