David John Shaw (20 July 1954 – 8 January 2005) was an Australian scuba diver, technical diver, and airline pilot for

Cathay Pacific Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, or simply Cathay Pacific, is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main airline hub, hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and its subsidiaries have schedule ...

, flying the

Lockheed L-1011 Tristar The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar (pronounced "El-ten-eleven") is an American medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet airliner built by the Lockheed Corporation. It was the third wide-body airliner to enter commercial operations, after the Boeing 747 ...

, then the 747-400, and then the A330-300, A340-300, and A340-600. He flew for Cathay Pacific from 1989 until his death in 2005. Before flying for Cathay Pacific, he flew for Mission Aviation Fellowship in Papua New Guinea and Tanzania. He also flew

agricultural aircraft An agricultural aircraft is an aircraft that has been built or converted for agricultural use – usually aerial application of pesticides (crop dusting) or fertilizer (aerial topdressing); in these roles, they are referred to as "crop duste ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

and

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Dive equipment

Shaw's first

rebreather A rebreather is a breathing apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of a user's exhaled breath to permit the rebreathing (recycling) of the substantial unused oxygen content, and unused inert content when present, of each breath. Oxygen is a ...

was an AP Inspiration closed circuit rebreather, with which he eventually dived to depths beyond its purported capability. This prompted him to not only purchase a Mk15.5 but to replace its analogue electronics with the digital ones of the Juergensen Marine Hammerhead, resulting in a specially modified POD designed to handle extreme pressures. The Mk15.5 was his rebreather of choice for dives deeper than . For extended dives in caves shallower than 150 m, Shaw used his Cis-Lunar since he believed it had superior redundancy capabilities, but could not cope with extreme depths.

Diving records

On 28 October 2004, Shaw descended to a depth of 270m at Bushman's Hole,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, breaking the following records: * Depth on a rebreather * Depth in a cave on a rebreather * Depth at altitude on a rebreather * Depth running a line He used a Mk15.5 with Juergensen Marine Hammerhead electronics and the following gas mixtures: trimix 4/80, 10/70, 15/55, 17/40, 26/25, air, nitrox50, 100%

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

. The cave elevation was and the dive duration was 9 hours and 40 minutes. On this dive, Shaw discovered the body of Deon Dreyer, a South African diver who had died in Bushman's Hole ten years previously. The body was at a depth of .

Last dive

Shaw died on 8 January 2005 while attempting to recover the body of Deon Dreyer. Shaw recorded his dive with an underwater

camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

, which allowed researchers to determine that he suffered from respiratory issues due to the high pressure. Shaw ran into difficulties when the body unexpectedly began to float. Shaw had been advised by various experts that the body would remain negatively buoyant because the visible parts were reduced to the skeleton. However, within his drysuit, Dreyer's corpse had turned into a soap-like substance called

adipocere Adipocere (), also known as corpse wax, grave wax or mortuary wax, is a wax-like organic substance formed by the anaerobic bacterial hydrolysis of fat in tissue, such as body fat in corpses. In its formation, putrefaction is replaced by a perman ...

, which floats. Shaw had been working with both hands, and so had been resting his can light on the cave floor. The powerful underwater lights that cave divers use are connected by wires to heavy battery canisters, normally worn on the cave diver's waist, or sometimes attached to their tanks. Normally he would have wrapped the wire behind his neck, but he was unable to do so; the lines from the body bag appear to have become entangled with the light head, and the physical effort of trying to free himself led to his death. Three days later, both of the bodies that had become entangled in the lines were pulled up to near the surface as the dive team was retrieving their equipment. Shaw's close friend and support diver, Don Shirley, nearly died as well and was left with permanent damage that has impaired his balance. The dive on which Shaw died was the 333rd of his career. At the time of his world record dive, he had been diving for a little over five years. His death has been profiled in a number of documentary films, including the 2020 documentary feature '' Dave Not Coming Back''. Australian band We Lost the Sea's 2015 concept album ''Departure Songs'' features songs inspired by failed, yet epic and honourable individual journeys or events throughout history where people have done extraordinary things for the greater good of those around them, including a track titled "The Last Dive of David Shaw".

Personal life

Shaw was a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. He and his wife, Ann, lived in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, where they were members of a small Christian congregation. They had two children, Steven Shaw and Lisa (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Shaw) Moyers.''Diving into Darkness'', pp. 29-30.

References

External links