Book: Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II
Basic Information :
Synopsis :
Characters :
Thoughts :
Evaluation :
Book Group :
Good Quotes :
References
Basic Information:
Author: Robert Kurson
Edition: Hardback from the
Fresno County Public Library
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0965925072 (ISBN13:
9780965925075)
Start Date: April 28, 2018
Read Date: May 4, 2018
335 pages
Genre: History, World War II,
Scuba Diving
Language Warning: Medium
Rated Overall: 3½ out of 5
History: 4 out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
What is a wreck diver? It is a
diver who finds, identifies helps to recover some of a ship-wreck.
That is what this story is
about, where Bill Nagle, a legend in the sport of wreck-diving, but
now out of shape for serious diving, receives the coordinates of a
possible wreck from a “friendly” captain. He takes along John
Chatterton and eleven other divers. Most of them figure that this
will probably be a garbage barge, but you never know. When Chatterton
went down, it was not a barge, but cigar shaped-a German sub. But the
question was, which one?
A good section of the book
deals with Kohler and Chatterton diving hoping to find some
identification on the sub. The other part of the chase is talking
with experts in the United States, Great Britain and Germany. They
spent time in research archives and museums pondering possibilities.
In the meantime, their
monomania-drive to dive and to determine the fate and identification
of the sub leads to the breakup of both of Chatterton and Kohler’s
marriages. Kohler comments on his blog that he was an comfortable
with Kurson’s digging into this part of the story, but after seeing
the results felt that it was part of the story.
Also, on two different dives
three people died. The first because the diver experienced
difficulties and sank without recovering. It was after this death
that Kohler becomes part of the team. The second was a father/son
team. The son tried to dislodge a barrier and became trapped. by the
time he escaped, he was out of oxygen and ascended without
decompression. The father gave chase and they both died because of
nitrogen poisoning, the bends.
As Chatterton and Kohler
narrow the focus of which sub has been found, they realize that
history may have been written wrong. Eventually the sub changes from
being known as U-Who to U-869. This is confirmed when Chatterton
goes into an unexplored compartment after performing a dangerous
maneuver and finds a tag on a box of spare parts.
After the confirmed
identification has been made, neither Chatterton or Kohler go down to
the sub again. Chatterton goes on to find other wrecks. Kohler is
more interested in the family and friends of the men who were in in
U-69. He was able to visit several of them.
Cast of Characters:
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Bill Nagle-Innovative deep
wreck diver. Becomes ship captain of the Seeker which is used to find
U-869/ He does not do any of the dives to find the sub. Dies due to
issues related to his drinking.
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John
Chatterton-Deep
wreck diver who is the first to see the sub U-869. He makes many
trips back to the sub over a space of 6-7 years until he can
positively determine the sub’s identity.
-
Richie
Kohler-
A member of a renegade group called the Atlantic Wreck Divers, he
started out not friendly towards Chatterton and vica versa. But when
they recognized their mutual love of figuring out a wreck, they
became close partners. Kohler and Chatterton were a team to discover
the identify of U-869.
Thoughts:
There are place in this book
which Kurson starts something and then drops it. Such as when the
German embassy approaches them about this is a German boat and they
are not to disturb it. There is only that one small section, but I do
not think that Kurson puts it to bed.
Chapter One - The Book of
Numbers
Bill Nagle had gotten a
potential deep wreck site.He and John Chatterton tried to find twelve
divers who would pay $100 to go out and explore some mysterious
readings another ship captain had gotten on a trip. Unless there was
a “sure” thing, many of the divers were not interested. Nagle
remarked that These
guys don’t have the heart for wreck diving John. These guys just
don’t get it. Is
this a unique situation? I backpackpack, sometimes long distances.
How can I explain what I feel, what drives me, to others who do not
participate?
Chapter Four - John
Chatterton
In Vietnam, Chatterton was a
medic. His job: save lives and limbs. On his first mission, some of
his colleagues went down under enemy fire. Chatterton braved the
enemy fire to rescue them, running exposed and hauling them away.
Reflecting on this experience, he thought how
full like felt when a person got to be excellent.
There is a sense of satisfaction by doing things well. I saw this
when I worked. Some people would give their fullest and some would
try to get by with as little as possible. My observation is that
those who gave the most enjoyed themselves the most.
Chatterton’s beliefs formed
during this Vietnam experiences. Kurson synthesize them down to:
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If something was easy,
someone else already would have done it.
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If you follow another’s
footsteps, you missed the problems really worth solving
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Excellence is born of
preparation, dedication, focus and tenacity; compromise on any of
these and you become average
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Sometimes life presents a
great moment of decision, an intersection at which a man must decide
to stop or go; person lives with these decisions forever
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Examine everything; not
all is as it seems or as people tell you.
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It is easiest to live with
a decision if it is based on an earnest sense of right and wrong.
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The guy who gets killed is
often the guy who is nervous
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The worst possible
decision is to give up.
In this chapter, Chatterton
realizes that he was made for scuba diving/ He wondered how
he had ever gone so long without knowing a man could get paid for
diving. I think
that when a person finds their true calling, their true vocation,
they ask the question, And
I get paid for this?
At least that is what happened when I found out that I was pretty
good as a computer programmer and that someone would actually pay me
to work at what I enjoyed doing.
Chapter Eight - Nothing At
That Location
Sometimes there can be wild
speculation in the book. Such as is Hitler on the boat/ Was this the
boat which he was trying to make his get away with? This is
recognized as only speculation, nothing of substance. The question is
how far a field does this speculation go? How far does it form the
character of this book? Or is it just wonderings. I think it is more
wondering than anything they were basing his thoughts on.
Chapter None - A Heavy Toll
After finding a human bone at
the U-Who wreck, Chatterton and Kohler were faced with a moral
dilemma. The question was, when they came across human remains, what
do they do with them? The two of them worked through the issues
surrounding this question. From the principle that the human remains
should not be disturbed, they came up with five rules of engagement:
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Respect the crewmen. The
U-boat crew were sailors, doing a job and were trying to serve their
own country.
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Respect for the families. If
they found something disturbing the bodies/bones, how do you talk
with the families of the men?
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Honor the brotherhood of the
deep. While the divers were different than the submariners, there
was enough similarities of the dangers that they understood the type
of men who were in the sub.
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Protect the wreck diver
profession/avocation image. Their behavior would reflect on the
sport.
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Do the right thing. Don’t
violat/dishonor the remains.
Chapter Ten - History
Mauled
What is the measure of a
person? Is it what a person thinks? What a person tries to be? Kohler
and Chatterton thinks that most people do not get tested or even put
themselves in a place where where they will have to understand their
own character. Consequently, they do not really know themselves.
Chapter Thirteen - The
U-Boat is Our Moment.
There is a couple of places
where the name Gary Gentile comes up. Here it says that Gentile had
thought that a different wreck was too busted up to identify.
Chatterton was able to. Later on in the Appendix, Gary Gentile is
given credit for explaining about the rivalries among boat captains.
This is ionic because Gentile writes a book called Shadow
Divers Exposed
which calls into question Chatteron’s and Kohler’s explanation
about how U-869 sank. Also what happened on deck after the Rouse’s
died.
To continue on with the
thought in chapter 10, When
things are easy a person doesn’t really learn about himself. It’s
what a person does at the moment of his greatest struggle that shows
him who he really is. Some people never get that moment.
Does this mean that a person should go out of their way to test their
limits? I think that you cannot go out and risk your life without
sufficient purpose. And that is where I think that is where most of
us live-without sufficient purpose in life. What what I die for? Why
am I living?
Epilogue
???Kurson says that
circle-runners-torpedo’s which turn back on the sub where they are
fired from-by their nature give little warning and bears no witness.
Yet on the previous page Kurtson talks about how the radio person
could tell it was coming and the captain has time to do a sharp dive.
I think that the author left something unsaid or unqualified.
Not many divers go out to the
U-869. The feeling is that the kind of divers who are capable are not
interest. They just do not have the mindset for it.
Evaluation:
As
I was reading Shadow
Divers,
I thought this was an interesting book, a pretty good read, but not
too much in it to think about. There are some interesting “heart”
observations
which
come out of the book, like what are you doing which you really love
and do with all your heart? Or What do you struggle for, really
struggle which you want to achieve?
As far as the book goes, it is
a good adventure book, pretty well written. For the most part, it is
a book you can race through, enjoy, and put away.
Notes from my book group:
When Bill Nagle says to John
Chatterton in chapter one, These
guys don’t have the heart for wreck diving John. These guys just
don’t get it. Why
would wreck diving become such a strong fascination? What do people
see in it? Is this a unique avocation? What other lines of interest
are there where there are true participants where the participants
feel others do not understand the devotion to that interest?
Chatterton and Kohler both
think about what does it mean to be excellent? How does it play into
their character? They think that When
things are easy a person doesn’t really learn about himself. It’s
what a person does at the moment of his greatest struggle that shows
him who he really is. Some people never get that moment.
When do these great moments which show your character comes along?
How can one prepare for these great moments? How does that tie in
with who you are?
Chatterton and Kohler after
examining records come up with conjectures about what took place.It
turns out that their conjectures were correct. How can we be sure
that what we know from history actually took place? As a side bar,
Chatterton and Kohler felt that U-869 was sunk because of a
circle-running torpedo. Another diver has, Gary Gentile, has written
a book called Shadow
Divers Exposed!
which refutes their conjecture. In 2005, the Coast Guard’s
determination was that Hedgehogs and depth charges from the American
destroyer escorts USS Howard D. Crow and USS Koiner sank U-869. Which
is right?
If you were working the sub as
Chatterton and Kohler were, what would you have done when you came
across some human bones? What respect do the dead have?
What occupation, advocation or
purpose would you risk your life for?
1. Is there something you
would risk everything — your family, sanity, and life – to
discover?
2. Was it proper for
Chatterton and Kohler to risk their lives, and the lives of others,
by insisting that all divers allow the remains of the fallen U-boat
sailors to remain undisturbed?
3. Chatterton and Kohler lost
their marriages to their quest to identify the U-Who. Was it worth
it?
4. Why weren’t Chatterton
and Kohler bothered more by the German sailors’ mission — namely,
to sink Allied ships and kill American sailors?
5. Do you think the U-Who’s
crewmen would have appreciated the efforts of Chatterton and Kohler
to identify their submarine and explain their story?
6. The German government told
Chatterton that all requests by scuba divers to explore sunken German
war graves had been denied. Chatterton politely explained his
intentions, then dove the wreck of the U-Who anyway. Was this morally
acceptable?
7. Gisela Engelmann dearly
loved her fiance, U-869 torpedoman Franz Nedel, despite Nedel’s
fervent commitment to Hitler and Nazi ideals – and despite the fact
that the Nazis had imprisoned both his father and Engelmann’s
father. Could you love someone whose political beliefs were abhorrent
to you?
8. Despite claustrophobic
conditions, many Germans preferred submarine service to army ground
service, where they might find themselves dug into trenches and
dodging enemy bullets. Which would you opt for?
9. Given the grave danger of
Chatterton’s final plan to dive the wreck of the U-Who, should
Kohler have stuck to his first instinct and refused to accompany
Chatterton?
10. Chatterton did not attend
the funeral of his dear friend, Bill Nagle. He never completely
explains the decision. Why do you think he didn’t attend Nagle’s
funeral?
11. Divers continue to debate
the ethics of removing artifacts from shipwrecks. When is it proper
to take artifacts from wrecks? Are there circumstances under which
artifacts should never be disturbed? Does your answer change if there
are human remains onboard?
12. Chatterton seemed
emotionally ready for the Rouses to identify the U-Who. But he seemed
incapable of accepting the possibility of a “greenhorn” diver
doing the same. Why?
13. Kohler gave up diving for
two years in an effort to keep his family together. Can a person ever
surrender his true passion and hope to live a happy and fulfilled
life?
14. Did the discovery of the
U-Who hasten Bill Nagle’s demise?
15. Given the intentions of
the crewmen aboard U-869 — to attack and kill Allied ships — do
you think the book treated them too kindly?
Many of these questions are
either from or adapted from LitLovers.
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Why the title of Shadow
Divers?
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Does this story work as a
historical account? Factually?
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Did the ending seem fitting?
Did Kohler visit any other family or friends beside the ones
mentioned?
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Which character did you
identify with? Which one did you dislike?
-
What kind of world view did
the author, divers present? Were you able to identify this story’s
world view? How did it affect the story?
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Why do you think the author
wrote this book?
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What would you ask the author
if you had a chance?
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What “take aways” did you
have from this book?
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How did this book affect your
view of the world?
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Talk about specific passages
that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing,
illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
Good Quotes:
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First
Line: A few years ago, a friend told
me a remarkable story.
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Last
Line: “Thank
you for coming
here.”
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When things are easy a person
doesn’t really learn about himself. It’s what a person does at
the moment of his greatest struggle that shows him who he really is.
Some people never get that moment. Chp Chapter Thirteen - The U-Boat
is Our Moment.
References:
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NWDivers
review of
Shadow Divers
and Gary Gentile’s book, Shadow
Divers Exposed
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New York Times excerpt
of Shadow Divers
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