“We have to work out the new decompression stops because of the extra depth guys.” I said as I took a look at the dive tables, which gave us less time at the bottom because of the extra depth. The captain of the boat maneuvered it into position and dropped anchor. A shot line was dropped into the sea, with the end tied to a marker buoy, which floated on the surface. Two air cylinders with demand valves where tied to the shot line, one at 9 meters and the other at 6 meters under the buoy. These would help us when coming up and in decompression, as we would need the extra air.

Everything prepared, the debriefing was made and we started putting our dive gear on, while chatting about our next dive. The question that was in our minds though was, what could be the object that the nets got tangled in. When we finished we checked everybody’s equipment and ran briefly through the dive plan again. Signals given and one bye one we plunged into the blue Mediterranean Sea. Being August it was a hot day so it was a relief getting in the water, obviously after struggling to put the diving gear on in a temp of 39°C. Stop watches set, our diving computers started to do their work as we slid under the surface. With us we carried the camera, torchlights and two 1000-liter lifting bags, which can lift a ton each and an extra air cylinder to fill the bags with.

It was a normal descent, diving slowly down the shot line to the dark bottom beneath. Luckily there was no current that day as one can normally find in open water and reef dives. 5, 10, 15 meters I was slowly going down, my eyes open to see if there was anything visible at the bottom while the others followed. Every now and then I would check by signaling the others if they were ok and they would give the ‘OK’ signal in return.

One has to understand that some danger exists when diving, mainly because, the diver would not be in his normal habitat and the body would be under an amount of pressure from the water. One symptom that might occur to a diver when going down is called ‘Nitrogen Narcosis’. This is caused by the raised partial pressure of Nitrogen and sometimes a diver would not be aware that he is suffering from this symptom so he continues to descent resulting to a more severe situation where the diver can loose his life.

Out here the water is very clear so I expected that whatever was the mass that the nets got tangled in, the shallowest part of it would be visible shortly. I looked at the depth gauge, 23 meters, and looked round to see if there was anything visible. Then, there to my right I saw something at around 15 meters below that might have caused the nets to get stuck. I turned to the others to point what I was seeing but it seemed that Paul had already seen it as he was making movements and pointing to that object. With every meter I approached the object, it became clearer to what it was and my heart began to increase its beat with every stroke of my legs. It was a sunken ship of some sort, of around 90 meters long. The sea had done its part on it as there where signs of corroded metal and it was all covered in seaweed and marine growth. It was lying sideways on its port side in the sloped part of the reef just around a meter from the drop off, which was quite visible now. One other thing was visible though that might justify the extra 5 meters of depth it lay in now. On the upper part of the reef, large marks, like skid marks where very much visible. It seem that the wreck was further up, skidded down the slop, probably because of the previous winds and strong currents, and came to rest on the ledge of the reef.

I came to the bottom around 10 meters away from the wreck and the others were just behind so I took a look at the stopwatch and depth gauge. They read 4 minutes and a depth of 50 meters, so we gave the ‘OK’ signal again, and swam to the wreck. I had made a signal to search for the nets first, so we separated within visual distance and started looking for the lost nets and attached equipment. During the search I had some chance in looking closer at the wreck and saw that it was a cargo carrier, probably more than 80 years old as the hull was riveted and not welded. The stopwatch was reading 9 minutes so I continued going around the hull where I came to the underside of the ship. Here a large hole could be seen in the forward section of the ship, caused most probably by a mine or a collision. 3 more minutes passed and by this time I had already taken around a dozen photos, so I started to swim to the others. I saw Tony waving to attract my attention and when I approached him I saw that he had found the nets. Paul had already recovered the winch and the “Doors”, and had already started to attach the lifting bags to them. As we tried to free a part of the nets that was stuck between the hull and a rock we heard a noise. I signaled to the others to stay clear of the wreck as the noise continued for a few seconds. I could see some movement as the wreck slid a few centimeters down the slope. I knew then that it wasn’t safe to work near the wreck. I signaled the others about the wreck sliding off the drop-off and signaled them to cut the equipment free from the nets while I take some more photographs of the still stuck nets. I took some more photographs of the wreck also, always staying clear of it, as, if it slid over the drop-off there would be a fall of around 10 more meters.      
 
15 minutes passed on the stopwatch as I saw the others preparing to start ascending so I thought that I had some time to take the last photographs and join the others. I was around 5 meters away from the forward part where the hole in the hull was, so I decided that I take some pictures of that part. As I took the first picture something inside the hull shone by the reflection of the flash. I got curious and moved closer. Something could be seen shimmering in the entrance of the hole, and for a second I forgot all about safety and moved slowly in the entrance. It came without warning, that same sound of metal sliding and this time there was even vibration around me. I couldn’t move I was petrified I tried to get out of that entrance but I couldn’t as the vibration increased, everything started to fade away as a voice in the distance was heard.