A Dive Into Oblivion
The Age
Friday May 31, 1996
The death at sea of Pat Bowring, an experienced diver, has baffled those who knew him. Rachel Gibson reports.
SOME CALL it the Everest of diving. The Koputai, a paddle steamer wrecked three nautical miles off Bondi beach in the 1920s, is a dangerous deep-sea dive for which few are qualified.
Pat Bowring, a diver of at least six years' experience, had explored the wreck several times. ``It was one of Pat's pleasures," says diving companion Richard Taylor, but it was not the most difficult he had encountered.
The disappearance of the freelance entertainment journalist on a dive to the Koputai on Friday of last week has baffled those who knew him. Extremely fit and with no known health problems, Bowring was also a master of the technical tri-mix dive - a dive to 50 metres or below that requires the use of air tanks holding a mix of nitrogen, oxygen and helium.
(The carefully balanced addition of helium prevents the narcotic effects of nitrogen at great depths).
Friends and fellow divers say he planned his dives carefully with the help of a computer simulator, and was methodical in his approach. With friend Paul Cavanagh, a former station manager at Channel 7 in Sydney, Bowring had ventured to some of the most dangerous sites in the world.
When Cavanagh died at his side from an oxygen convulsion during a 1994 dive to the Coolooli wreck off Long Reef in 1994, Bowring was pained and exasperated. ``It was just so foreign to him; the idea that something could go wrong," says long-time friend Max Webberley. ``He and Paul had dived around the world, in Mexico and Guam, and in the South Australian lakes. They were very, very serious."
According to friend and diving companion Joe Ellams, manager of the Manly Dive Club to which Bowring belonged, an average technical dive could cost between $150 and $200 for 20 minutes, most of which would be spent on gas and charter boat fees; the dive equipment alone could cost up to $10,000.
A dive such as the Koputai was not for the amateur thrill- seeker. ``Only a handful have dived it. It is the pinnacle of wreck-diving in Sydney," Ellams says. ``It's not the sort of dive you do if you're inexperienced."
On Friday 24 May, Bowring set out in the afternoon with friends Barry Hallett, owner of Southern Cross Divers, Richard Taylor and diving instructors Paul Bohler and David Apperley, in a boat owned by Southern Cross.
They arranged the three-to-four-hour round-trip to Koputai for a Friday because the boat was needed for charter trips at the weekend. Max Webberley, a colleague from Bowring's days at The Sun in the 1970s, said Bowring had planned to be back in time to head down the New South Wales South Coast that evening with wife Nene King, the high-profile editorial director of the Australian Women's Weekly.
``It wasn't as if he got up in the morning and said: `this is a big day, dear'. It was all just routine: "I'll just pop out to Bondi'," Webberley says. ``He dived very, very frequently. I don't think that dive was regarded as anything out of the ordinary."
Above Koputai, Bowring followed Hallett and Bohler into the water, where they were to feel their way to the wreck 80 metres below the surface using the boat's anchor line. But after descending just 10 metres or so Bowring ran into difficulties, surfacing again within minutes about a kilometre from the boat.
Probably believing it himself, he signalled to his companions on the boat that he was OK, but to them he appeared distressed, and Apperley dived in and swam out to assist. By the time he reached the spot, his friend had disappeared. All that was visible was a flash of color from the diver's air tanks as he sunk.
At first, Apperley assumed Bowring had simply resumed the dive. But he was concerned.
Hallett and Bohler had by now almost reached the ocean floor and realised not only that they had drifted some way from the wreck, but that their companion had failed to descend.
They cancelled the dive and returned to top, stopping to decompress at 12 metres below the surface.
It was to this point that Apperley dived to meet them, hoping they had made contact with Bowring. But they indicated they had not seen him since he left the surface. A search was begun in the hope Bowring had used his buoyancy vest to rise to the surface and would be found drifting a little way out to sea. But he was not, and the water police were called, beginning a three-day air and sea search.
On Sunday, Bowring's diving suit was found 190 metres from the wreck by Manly Dive Club volunteers scouring the ocean floor below where the diver had disappeared. The badly torn suit with its front zip still in place bore the signs of a shark attack, but police and marine experts believe Bowring was not killed by a shark.
His disappearance and certain death remain a mystery. ``We've no idea really," says senior constable Darren McGuire of the Sydney Water Police, who is in charge of the investigation.
``It was probably some sort of medical problem on the surface, a heart attack, or he might have become stressed out a bit and taken in some water. We don't know what really happened.
" For his friends, it is inconceivable that Bowring could have made a mistake with his breathing equipment. His four air tanks, weight belt and buoyancy vest have not been found.
At a Buddhist service to remember him this week, those who knew Bowring described him as a gentle and thoughtful free spirit, who had died where he was happiest.
``He wasn't a mysterious person, so it's disappointing that he would die in such mystery," says Webberley. ``But I know Nene would prefer that if he had to die that he would not be brought back and put in a morgue and given an autopsy, but that he be free to drift around."
FATAL DESCENT.
Experienced technical divers Pat Bowring, owner of Southern Cross Divers Barry Hallett, colleague Richard Taylor and diving instructors Paul Bohler and David Apperley, take a boat out four and a half kilometres from Bondi beach on Friday afternoon 24 May, stopping above the wreck of the Koputai, a paddle steamer sunk in the 1920s.
Bowring follows Hallett and Bohler into the water to descend the 78 metres to the wreck about 2pm, but returns to the surface after descending only 10 metres. Surfacing 10 15 ms from the boat where the other two divers remain, Pat signals that he is OK but appears distressed.
David Apperley dives in and swims to the spot he last saw Pat but finds the diver has disappeared again. Apperley sees the color of his tanks as they disappear and assumes Bowring has continued the dive.
On the ocean floor surface, Bohler and Hallett realise they have drifted away from the wreck and that Bowring has not joined them. They cancel the and return to the surface, stopping to decompress 12 metres from the top.
Apperley takes a tank and descends, joining his companions at the deco stop, to see if Bowring is with them. Hallett and Bohler tell him they have not seen their friend since they began the dive. A search is conducted of the area in the hope Pat has resurfaced using his buoyancy vest and is floating somehwere on the surface.
Later, the water police are called and a helicopter and boat search begun.
On Sunday Bowring's vest is found torn and mangled. A skark expert later says it is possible a shark has disturbed the suit on the ocean floor but rules it unlikely the diver was taken by a shark. His tanks and equipment remain lost.
© 1996 The Age
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