The Diver Trapped at the Depths of the Ocean
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The ocean remains a mystery. We'd like to think that after thousands of years of seafaring, we have conquered it. But when it comes to the deep sea, we have only the slightest clue. According to the National Ocean Service, over 80% of the oceans remain unmapped, unobserved and unexplored. Today, there lies only a select handful of people that know how to venture into the ocean's depths. Saturation divers as it's classified involves deep sea operations up to 500 m deep past the point of light and into the unknown. There is an entirely different world at the bottom of the sea and we know little to nothing about it. And that thought alone is terrifying. So what happens when a saturation dive goes terribly terribly wrong. Hi, my name is Matt Perez. And today we tell the story of a man trapped at the bottom of the ocean as well as other terrifying unknowns. Unseen. Thanks for watching. Yes to Mr Diver, September 2012, the North Sea, the diving support vessel, bi Topaz set sail with a team of saturation divers and specialized crew. Their mission was to conduct repairs on an underwater pipe structure called a manifold. A team of three divers were assigned to the job. Duncan Alcock, David and Chris Lemons. Chris was the newest diver of the three and was looking to prove his worth among the more experienced vets. One of the most important parts of diving is the need to gradually decompress when ascending back to the surface, failure to do so can result in decompression sickness where the nitrogen bubbles quickly form in the bloodstream leading to serious injury or even death. To overcome this, the divers would be required to spend a month in their saturation chambers to properly acclimate, crawl through, crawl through these little tunnels to get from place to place. And down this way is what we call a wet pot. So I just push that door open basically in the toilet and the shower room. So various solutions and that kind of thing. Yeah, if I stand my full height, there's absolutely everything I can knock my head on. It's a real pain for me. That's why I've always got gases all over me. And the magic of it is once you done the full circuit, you're back to, you're back to where you started. Done a cup of tea and a cup of tea, Miami chocolate stash. Yeah, that's ridiculous. Duncan. How much have you got? How much have you got in there? Just a bar for every day? A bar for every day, for weeks. The divers lived in an airtight habitat at 10 times the normal atmospheric pressure, an uncomfortable living situation with very little space and even less privacy. And then the day of the job came, the divers would deploy through a structure known as the Bell Duncan Alcock. The most experienced of the trio would be supervising the other two divers from the bell chamber. Dave was designated as diver number one and Chris Lemons was designated as diver number two, Dave and Chris prepped their gear ran their safety checks and lowered. The bell platform is the very last stop before the divers plunge into the abyss attached to the divers is an absolutely critical lifeline called the umbilical cord. The umbilical cord supplies the oxygen gas and heat that the diver needs to survive. Fittingly named, it also gives divers their route back to the belt. Yeah. So with the umbilical attached and the green light given Dave and Chris must drop off of the platform and into the darkness below them, you your Yeah, slowly the two divers navigate the radio calls towards the manifold. They arrive at the lonely intrusive structure at the bottom of the sea bed and get to work brand new on the at 2049 tales of horror in the deep ocean have always been common among sailors at sea. The ancient Greeks told stories of the hydra, a colossal multiheaded serpent that guarded the gates of the underworld. In Scandinavian folklore, sailors warn of the mighty cracking a colossal octopus that attacked ships at sea. But some of the most horrifying stories in modern literature lie in the Kau mythos of H P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft's work centers around the theme that the universe is a vast uncaring void and humans are helpless to infinitely larger powers. Unsurprisingly, the deepest depths of the ocean become a perfect setting to communicate the horror of the unknown lovecraft's most popular work of describes the ancient God. Kau who lies hibernating deep within the Pacific Ocean. Although it lays dormant, its power seeps into the nightmares of men and the cultists who worship Kaul seek to one day revive the great old one. But if Kalu ever awakens, it would all but guarantee humanity's total annihilation they worshiped. So they said the great old ones who lived in ages before there were any men and who came to the young world out of the sky, those old ones were gone now inside the earth and under the sea. But their dead bodies had told their secrets and dreams to the first men who formed a cult which had never died. As terrifying as both the and the deep sea are. They exhibit almost pure indifference. Kau does not actively seek to destroy mankind. We are as insignificant to it as insects are to us. Kari would obliterate mankind without any second thought and maybe that thought is worse than hate. Fun, really good song in his house. I really take to and just like Kau, the ocean exhibits no sympathy. It was rough stormy waters on the night of the job, an 18 ft swell, 35 knots of wind. Despite this, the operation was diable as the ship has a dynamic positioning system to fare against the currents. 1456 running. Ok. So the job began as an but in a freak chain of events, the impossible occurred. The ship's dynamic positioning system completely failed, including the master computer as well as both safety backups. Immediately, the dive supervisor and the ship called the divers back to the belt. But by that point, the ship was already a helpless and began to rapidly drift off. The divers. Big Chris immediately started following their umbilical back to the bell and back to their only safety. But as they began to ascend, Dave noticed that Chris was lagging behind to his horror. He discovered that Chris's unbuilt heart was caught in the manifold and it had wound up so tightly that there was nothing Chris anyone could do to release it. So Chris had nowhere to go and every second the ship was pulling the rope farther and farther away from him. Moments later, he the rope snap and Chris was tumbling into the abyss. Chris was now completely stranded at the bottom of the sea bed cut off from his literal lifeline. All that was left was a five minute oxygen reserve tank which was not meant to sustain life for any significant period. Chris's only option was to accept his fate and pray that the rescuers would find his body by a stroke of luck. Seemingly his only luck that night, he was able to stumble upon the manifold. So Chris climbed onto the structure in order to place himself where rescuers would best find him and succumbed to the deep dark sea. There are many games that take advantage of our fears of the sea. They fill the gap of the deep unknown with Great Leviathans and unforeseen horrors. But there is no game that captures the loneliness at the bottom of the sea. More than the survival horror game Soma in SOMA, we play a Simon Jarrett, a man who wakes up 100 years into the future, lost and confused in an underwater research facility called Pathos Two. As you seek to figure out what's going on, Simon wanders desolate halls and abandoned rooms around Pathos two only knowing that nothing good has taken place here to get to the different stations in the base. Simon walks across the sea floor and at that moment, you realize how truly alone you are in the deep sea. One of the most profound moments of the day and disclaimer, but there are spoilers ahead is when Simon must descend into the deepest part of Pathos two, the abyssal plane, 4000 m deep as the climbing rig falls further and further down, experiencing several 100 atmospheres of pressure and passing well beyond the reach of any sunlight. Simon has a conversation with a woman named Catherine Chung and they talk about the hopelessness of the situation they're in. As it turns out, Simon and Catherine are some of the last and possibly even only survivors on earth, the surface has become eradicated by a massive asteroid. And so the two of them are forever stuck under the ocean. So as they continue to descend, they reflect back on their lives and how they never would have even imagined being so far from it. Now, let me say something. I don't want to think. Please. I don't know what to say. I don't want to upset. You don't say anything when I was little, I used to climb the stairs all the way to the top of the building and I could still feel how I had to, you know, tuck my arm so I could push the heavy steel door open. Well, the first time that I dare go up there, I stepped out onto the roof and watched the smog rise and fall over Taipei, I got all the way up to the coral edge and, you know, I felt the wind in my hair and the sun was setting. The streets below were shadowed by the tall buildings and the people pushing to the craft flowed like paint from an arts brush, street food vendors filled the air with aromas with all my favorite foods. For a brief moment, I felt connected to the world in a way that I never had before. It was the most profound feeling of comfort and sense of belonging I could ever hope for. I really never felt the same way again, but I went up to the roof many times after I'm not religious, but I can see why people would be the privilege of being. Makes a strong case. At least every once in a while, Chris lemons lay unconscious for over 30 minutes with his oxygen reserve tank fully depleted as he lay there, his life flashed before his eyes. He pictured the woman he wanted to marry the house. They were building together and the future he longed to live slowly, everything faded into nothingness. And then Chris woke up back in the bell as it turns out, the crew was able to eventually turn the ship back around to attempt to rescue Daa dove back down to retrieve Chris's unconscious body. And Duncan Alcock was able to resuscitate him how he survived. Still largely remains a mystery. A popular explanation theorizes that Chris's body went into shutdown, prioritizing vital organs in a low energy state. This combined with a high partial pressure of oxygen in his suit would provide just enough to survive. Three weeks later, Chris Dave and Duncan all return to the North Sea to finish the job. Chris continues to dive to this day and went on to marry his wife Mora as planned. Ultimately, the sea continues to be our planet's great unknown. We envision nightmares at its depths, dark creatures and cosmic horrors for good reason too. The deep ocean does not forgive mistakes made, it leaves no room for air. And in that respect, it is a good thing that we fear the ocean because it puts into perspective that we are still helpless to nature's elements. So often we look to the sky as the next frontier, but there is a world below left and conquered. Hi, everybody is bright from here. We really care about our ocean and each year more and more trash is going into the ocean and less and less is done to take care of it. This year, team CS is raising a bunch of money to help clean up the ocean around the world. We've dropped the link in the description below so you can check it out and donate some money to this cause. Thanks for watching this video.