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Divers' bodies 'unexpected'
13/01/2005 07:45 - (SA)
Joylene van Wyk and Hannatjie van der Merwe
Daniëlskuil - The bodies of Australian diver Dave Shaw and Deon Dreyer were unexpectedly pulled from the depths of Boesmansgat on Wednesday as divers raised equipment
attached to a line.
Shaw died on Saturday while trying to recover the body of 20-year-old Dreyer, who drowned in the cave more than 10 years ago. Police dive commander Ernst Strydom said: "Police divers,
helped by technical divers, started recovering the ropes and other equipment from the water this morning (Wednesday) when they saw Dave and Deon's bodies at the cliff beneath the water."
Strydom said the divers had been about 20 to 25m deep when they saw the bodies.
Mom upset she had not been there
Although he was surprised when he was told the news, Deon's father, Theo, said he had half expected it.
When she was told, his wife, Marie, became extremely upset that she had not been at the scene when her son's body was pulled from the water.
The Dreyers had spent the weekend at Boesmansgat in the Northern Cape, but returned home to Gauteng on Sunday.
The Rev Michael Vickers, the Shaw family's minister and spokesperson in Hong Kong where Shaw worked for Cathay Pacific airline, said: "It makes no difference. Shaw is dead."
According to people at Daniëlskuil, Dreyer's body was tangled in the guideline.
Shaw's body was also entangled in it - about 2m higher
up.
Shaw's diving suit was apparently slightly inflated.
Last year, when he found Dreyer's body at the bottom of the cave, Shaw apparently fastened it to the guideline with a cord.
Shaw's torch, attached to his wrist and to a battery pack by a cable, appeared to have become entangled in the same cord. At the time he found Dreyer's remains, the dead man's breathing tanks had been embedded in
the mud at the bottom.
Shaw planned to cut Dreyer's tank harness away and
place his remains in a body bag on Saturday.
Andries van Zyl, owner of Mount Carmel farm where Boesmansgat is situated, said he was relieved.
For him the unexpected retrieval of the bodies
was "closure" and the best thing to have happened under the circumstances.
Police diver Theo van Eeden of Cape Town was also involved in
the weekend recovery operation.
He said: "It shows you how God works. It
was his will. I am very happy. Honestly."
He said the video camera that Shaw had worn on his head would give an indication of what went wrong.
Underwater photographer Derek Hughes said he was still a bit shocked by the news.
People involved in the dive had spoken about the possibility of one or even both bodies floating to the surface in this way. And then it happened, he said.
Strydom said the bodies would be taken to a local mortuary where post-mortems would be carried out.
Afterwards, Shaw's remains would be sent to his family.
Strydom said Wednesday's operation had been to retrieve cylinders that had been suspended at various depths for the use during the 12-hour decompression phase of Shaw's dive. Extremely dangerous dive
Shaw's attempt to retrieve Dreyer's body was extremely dangerous.
Never before has such a task been tackled at a depth of 267m. Shaw, who has lived in Hong Kong since 1989, offered to retrieve Dreyer's body after spotting it during a dive on October 28 last year.
On Friday night, Shaw told fellow divers that if anything went wrong, no attempt to retrieve his body should be made and he should be left in Boesmansgat.
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