Eight Rules for Life from an Elite Shipwreck Diver
And a lesson in having a truly remarkable existence
Shipwreck divers are a unique breed. They willingly venture hundreds of feet underwater with limited air supplies, penetrate inside structurally unstable wrecks that offer no promise of easy escape, and risk death by decompression sickness (i.e. their blood basically boiling) if they ascend to the surface too fast. John Chatterton is one of the best wreck divers there is, and his life provides lessons for even those of us with less extreme hobbies.
Chatterton’s story is told in the riveting book Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. In 1991 Chatterton was part of an elite team of divers who discovered a sunken German U-boat off the coast of New Jersey. The divers figured they would identify the vessel relatively quickly through markings, recovery of an artifact, or historical research. It would not be nearly that easy though. Normal identifying features were missing or corroded away. And no one, not even the US or German governments, had any idea which sub this was or how it possibly ended up in New Jersey.
The mystery led Chatterton and his longtime rival turned trusted diving partner, Richie Kohler, on a seven-year odyssey to identify the U-boat and tell the story of the unnamed dead still on board.
The journey was a perilous one that in the end cost three men their lives. The U-boat is at a depth of 230 feet, the absolute limit of diving technology at the time. As a matter of course divers would get a condition called nitrogen narcosis, where excess nitrogen in the bloodstream impairs cognitive judgment. The effect is not all that different from being a bit buzzed, except if you make a mistake the results are deadly. In the open Atlantic, underwater currents can be strong enough to whisk divers miles down current never to be seen again. And if that’s not enough, wreck divers often work in zero visibility conditions. There is very little light that deep to begin with, and disturbed silt in the wreck leads to complete blackouts.
So with the risk and consequences so high, it’s worth asking, what kept them going?
For Chatterton and Kohler, the sense of exploration was intoxicating. Kurson puts this feeling best:
“Many of the deep wrecks hadn’t been seen since their victims last looked at them, and would remain lost while nature pawed at them until they simply didn’t exist anymore. In a world where even the moon had been traveled, the floor of the Atlantic remained uncharted wilderness, its shipwrecks beacons for men compelled to look.”
To fully understand Chatterton’s actions though, you have to understand more about his background. Chatterton came of age during the Vietnam War. Instead of protesting the war, he found himself intensely curious about what drives men to war and how they sustain it. So he signed up for duty to find out himself.
Chatterton was initially assigned to a neurological ward in Japan. He saw and tended to some of the worst injuries soldiers would face, but otherwise lived a comparatively safe and comfortable existence. He still didn’t have the answers he wanted. To find them he volunteered to be transferred to Vietnam as a field medic.
Chatterton immediately found himself in life & death situations. On his very first combat patrol, a fellow soldier was shot. Chatterton surprised his platoon, and even himself, by reflexively rushing through enemy fire to save the man. Where other medics ducked and crawled, he ran at a sprint. When it was rare for a medic to even be on a patrol, Chatterton took point.
Chatterton’s Principles of Life
Quoting Kurson again, “As weeks turned to months and Chatterton continued to distinguish himself, he studied himself and others in action, watched soldiers live and die and show courage and break down, paid careful attention to the behavior of the men around him, all to divine further insight into the right way to live. Gradually, he distilled certain principles that seemed to him indisputable truths… As he neared the end of his six-month field obligation, he had come to believe these things:
- If an undertaking were easy, someone would have already done it.
- If you follow in another’s footsteps, you miss the problems really worth solving.
- Excellence is born of preparation, dedication, focus, and tenacity. Compromise on any of these and you become average.
- Every so often life presents a great moment of decision, an intersection at which a man must decide to stay or go; a person lives with these decisions forever.
- Examine everything, not all is as it seems or as people tell you.
- It is easiest to live with a decision if it is based on an earnest sense of right and wrong
- The guy who gets killed is most often the guy who got nervous. The guy who doesn’t care anymore. The guy who has said,” I’m already dead — the fact that I live or die is irrelevant and the only thing that matters is the accounting I give of myself” is the most formidable force in the ‘world.
- The worst possible decision is to give up.
The influence of these rules on Chatterton’s life are apparent. They made him an exceptional battlefield medic. They gave him direction through years of toil and loss while exploring an unidentified sunken U-boat. They undoubtedly guided him while making numerous historic firsts since then.
Today, Chatterton is one of the world’s best and most well-known wreck divers. If you want to have similar success in your own field, you would do well to try and live by his rules.
Evan Hilgemann is a mechanical engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a telescope operator at Griffith Observatory. You might also enjoy Explore & Observe, his email newsletter on modern-day exploration of earth and space.
This work was done as a private venture and not in the author’s capacity as an employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Any views and opinions expressed do not state or reflect those of NASA, JPL, or the California Institute of Technology
