The Last Dive
A Father and Son's Fatal Descent Into the Ocean's Depths
The Wreck
Formerly known as the U-Who, The U-869 was a Nazi Type IXC/40 U-boat that was mistakenly thought to have been sunk of the coast of Gibraltar. It was actually sunk by the Howard D Crow (DE-252) and Koiner (DE-331) on February 11th 1945 off the coast of New Jersey. It was originally discovered by fisherman who would snag their nets on the site. Bill Nagel was told about the site and mounted a diving expedition to what he thought could be "just a pile of rocks". It ended up being a U-boat. But this raised more questions then it answered.
Depth, the problems with going deeper
The Deeper one dives the larger the problems one will encounter. Some of these problems include; nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity, decompression sickness, air consumption, water temperature, visibility, and many other environmental hazards.
The Rouses had to deal with all of these hazards to some degree, the most prominent for Chris and Chrissy were nitrogen narcosis and decompression sickness. Follow the Links below to explore how these problems affect the Rouses and many other divers.
