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Bernie Chowdhury

The Last Dive: A Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean's Depths Paperback – February 19, 2002

by Bernie Chowdhury (Author)

359 ratings

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“Superbly written and action-packed, The Last Dive ranks with such adventure classics as The Perfect Storm and Into Thin Air.”—Tampa Tribune

Spurred on by a fatal combination of obsession and ambition, Chris and Chrisy Rouse, an experienced father-son scuba diving team, hoped to achieve wide-spread recognition for their outstanding and controversial diving skills by solving the secrets of a mysterious, undocumented, World War II German U-boat that lay only a half day’s mission from New York Harbor.

The Rouses found the ultimate cost of chasing their personal challenge: death from what divers dread the most—decompression sickness, or “the bends.” In this gripping recounting of their tragedy, author Bernie Chowdhury, himself an expert diver, explores the thrill-seeking, high-risk world of deep sea diving, its legendary figures, most celebrated triumphs, and notorious tragedies.

Print length

384 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper Perennial
Publication date

February 19, 2002
Dimensions

5.31 x 0.86 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0060932597
ISBN-13

978-0060932596
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Chris and Chrissy Rouse, an experienced father-and-son scuba diving team, hoped to achieve widespread recognition for their outstanding but controversial diving skills. Obsessed and ambitious, they sought to solve the secrets of a mysterious, undocumented World War II German U-boat that lay under 230 feet of water, only a half-day's mission from New York Harbor. In doing so, they paid the ultimate price in their quest for fame.

Bernie Chowdhury, himself an expert diver and a close friend of the Rouses', explores the thrill-seeking world of deep-sea diving, including its legendary figures, most celebrated triumphs, and gruesome tragedies. By examining the diver's psychology through the complex father-and-son dynamic, Chowdhury illuminates the extreme sport diver's push toward—and sometimes beyond—the limits of human endurance.

About the Author

Bernie Chowdhury is the founder and co-publisher of The Inteinational Technical Diving Magazine. A world-class diver, Explorers Club Fellow, and a recognized expert on extreme sport diving, he also makes documentary films and is a frequent lecturer.

Product details

Publisher : Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (February 19, 2002)
Language : English
Paperback : 384 pages
ISBN-10 : 0060932597
ISBN-13 : 978-0060932596
Item Weight : 9.6 ounces
Dimensions : 5.31 x 0.86 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #330,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #162 in Scuba Diving
- #324 in Ecosystems
- #461 in Oceans & Seas

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359 ratings

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Jacquelyn Johnson

Excellent resource for diving, but does not adequately discuss Rouse tragedy

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2021

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This book is an excellent resource for diving instruction and history. It is also excellent in its warnings about the dangers of diving in that it shows the serious attitude and attention that should be taken when diving and the consequences many have suffered who did not heed these warnings. The book also includes famous dives and the divers who made them. I was able to enjoy and sympathize with many of these divers, e.g., Denny McLaughlin, John Chatterton, Ken Reinhart (flight instructor), and the author himself. However, the Rouses, about whom the book was written, seemed to be shallow, without depth. I never really knew who they were and never quite connected with them. Even in the eulogies, written near the end of the book, I felt that many of their friends did not actually know them. So while the book was ostensibly written about them, they seemed to be only characters in passing.

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Ryan Jackson

Great Book - Heart Wrenching

Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2015

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Overall, this was a good book but I had to periodically stop. It was mostly well-written but with a few concerns. When Chris and Chrissy surfaced, heart wrenching to imagine what was going on, there was dialogue about Chatterton intubating (high level of respiratory support) one of the victims. Not to take anything away from the seriousness of the situation, there is verbiage that Chatterton was an anesthesiologist. He was not. He was a combat medic in Vietnam. Legally, he did not have the licensure to intubate. There was a Registered Nurse on the ship during this fateful episode and with specific training, she may have been certified to intubate, but not Chatterton. It doesn't change the end result but it's not accurate.
Another interesting point was it appeared that the Rouse's prided themselves on preparing for a dive. Page after page, the reader knows how well they prepare for a dive - redundancy of gear, diving plan, etc. - they went into a dive prepared for problems. However, I don't understand why the boat wasn't prepared to handle someone who gets severely bent. To call for an emergency evacuation and wait? I've done sport diving and have no desire to place myself in a situation where there are no contingency plans. There are portable decompression chambers that can be placed on boats - should have been one in this situation. All boats who serve as a dive platform for deep dives should have one. I could not operate a boat who served as a dive platform for deep dives, in good conscious, without one.
My heart breaks to think what these guys were thinking when they surfaced. They knew.

11 people found this helpful

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kevin davison

Excellent book with good background and explanation of theory.

Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2020

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Even though you know the eventual outcome, the book is a good one with good explanations of theory and background for someone who may not be familiar with Technical or Cave Diving practices. It also explains the general attitudes of the diving community with regards to the emerging subset of the SCUBA diving sport known as Technical diving during the early days of its development. I enjoyed reading about the life and personalities of the Rouse family, the main subjects of this book.

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GBW

Good Read if you like the Subject

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2018

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This was a good and interesting read, but read Shadow Divers first. If the story of the U-Boat and the whole field of wreck diving interests you, this book is a good follow-up. It kind of jumps around a bit from the father and son to the author and spends a lot of time on the history and technical aspects of diving, but, as said, if that interests you then it is a good read. It will also save you a lot of money in that if you are normal, you will have no interest in ever diving deep - very much like 'Into thin Air' dissuades you from every wanting to climb Everest ;-).

2 people found this helpful

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Klaus Stiefel

Death at Depth

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2010

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This is a thrilling and readable book. It is a good adventure story with a human touch, and an interesting description of the earlier days of technical diving in the US. Technical diving is the type of diving where divers venture deeper than is typically done in recreational dives, and where they explore caves and wrecks. Such dives involve far more advanced training, planning and gear and much more risk than the usual dive on a sunny coral reef in the Caribbean would. The main protagonists of this book, the Rouses, father and son, engage in both cave and wreck diving, while living out their extroverted, prank-loving, bickering characters at the same time. The book's author, Bernie Chowdhury, was a personal friend of theirs and gives a colorful description of their adventures under water and social encounters in the world of diving.

The books ends with the Rouses' death on a wreck laying in deep water off the US East coast. At this point, it turns from a description of exciting adventurous dives and the often hilarious attics of this father-son team into a stomach-clenching description of a fatal accident. It is essentially a study on how NOT to conduct any type of advanced diving: the Rouses' big egos made them take undue risks in poor conditions and they saved money on improved breathing gases, the Helium - air mixes reducing the narcotic effects of nitrogen that can cast a thick fog over a diver's mind. Rather they decided to dive using regular - at this depth highly narcotic - air. The younger Rouse then got stuck in the tight interior of the wreck (due to the strong nitrogen narcosis at that depth hallucinating that he was being swallowed by a monster) and after a rescue effort by his father, they failed to locate the tanks necessary for a slow ascent. The sprint to the surface did not allow their bodies to get rid of the dissolved gasses absorbed in the high-pressure conditions at depth, and both of them perished. Naturally, hindsight is 20/20, and I certainly feel empathy for them and how they died a horrible panicked painful death. Nevertheless, I believe that this story was clearly not an unforeseeable tragedy, but serves as a prime example of how a series of poor judgments and decisions will amplify the already large risks inherent in deep and wreck diving. May others learn from them!

8 people found this helpful

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Jules

Wrecked adventure

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2019

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A well written tale which manages to combine the excitement of treasure hunting, with the pressure of the deep and the fear of being out of control.

I read Shadow Divers some time back, but this book really gets across the scare factor of deep diving and risk taking. It is on one, obvious level, a tragic story but, on another, the writer clearly gets the reader to understand the emotional connection with this most demanding of pastimes.

Instantly engaging, even if some of the characters are people I would probably not have got along with, and an amazingly powerful story.

A great read, but not for the claustrophobic.

FMac1984

Slightly mis-sold title and frustratingly drawn out.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2015

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Without taking anything away from Chowdhury's expertise and experiences as diver, (he has reached levels most of us will never get near) the book for me drags and is a quite frustrating read at times.

The crux of the book is sold as the fatal last dive of the Rouses. However, the book is far too long and drawn out for the content. Chowdhury doesn't reach the fatal dive until almost the last chapter and then it is scimmed over quickly. Hence the most dramatic aspect of the book is over very quickly leaving you, (without sounding morbid), feeling somewhat sort changed. Maybe it was out of respect for the dead but why write a book advertised around their fatal last dive and then barely touch the subject? Chowdbury would have been better writing a magazine article if he had wanted to focus on just that fateful dive-keeping it short and too the point. Or advertise his book as an exploration into the diving community and it experimentation in new techniques during the late 80's early 90's. He simply doesn't have enough material and your left with pages and pages of rather boring fleshing out. It may as well be an autobiography on both himself and the Rouse's which is interesting at times but is not why I bought the book.

As another reviewer mentioned there is so much irrelevant information and bizarre tangents in an attempt to flesh out the book. I'm reading a book on diving I don't wish to know about his fathers career as a scientist etc. The are huge areas of repetition on dive tables, gas effects under pressure, how decompression sickness occurs, once I've read it once I've got it, I became frustrated when such information appears again and again and goes on for pages. I landed up skipping through huge chunks as I'd read it all before in the previous chapter.

The writing is very melodramatic and over the top at times. Using 'war zone' analogies with reference to deep diving I found both cringing and quite insulting is merely one example. I understand it is a very extreme sport and takes a strong minded individual to dive the way these men and woman do but the constant descriptive glorification regarding them is both cheesy and unnecessary.

Sadly, with his overly dramatic references and long winded writing style I feel Chowdbury has missed the mark with this book. Although, if your after a sort of semi-autobiography and the challenges of pioneering tech diving it might be up your street.

Philip Finch's 'Raising the Dead' about Dave Shaw's final dive, is a fantastic example of a book written around what some would deem a relatively short piece of subject matter. It is informative, cohesive, gripping and to the point about diving to much greater depths without any glorification or melodrama. If your after a non fiction thriller on diving you literally can't put down look no further.

2 people found this helpful

Dave Fletcher

Superb book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 20, 2019

Verified Purchase

A book which told the story of the Rouse family with all the good and bad bits. It opened up my eyes to the world of deep water scuba diving as it was in the early 90’s and just after, the lengths and danger some people will go to in a bid to fur fill the dreams, which in many cause they sadly paid for with their lives.
This is a really good book which, once I started to read found it very difficult to put down

harry 123

A great price, fast delivery

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 16, 2016

Verified Purchase

A great price, fast delivery. A subject not known by everyone but what a great book of facts this is, very sad, , in this this game break the rules and you are dead unless you are very lucky. I am an ex firefighter from a city brigade and breathing apparatus was the name of my game I was in, I broke the rules 3 times and nearly paid the price, underwater carries the same rules.
A good book everyone needs to read this book, Bernie Chowdhury did a brilliant job in writing it.
Regards..

Angelo

Good story, not told so well

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2013

Verified Purchase

I am nearly at the end of the book. The story is gripping and engaging, the technical diving terms are all well explained and should not get in the way of the non-diver wishing to read the book.

What annoyed me was that the writer repeated a lot of facts in several sections of the book, recounting the same tales multiple times. The flow of the story was not well maintained. Compared to "Raising the Dead" by Phillip Finch, which I also read, this book is poorly written.

Having said that, if you can brush over these imperfections, the book is still well worth reading.

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