OFF THE RECORD

Diving Shipwrecks Gives Attorney Glimpses of History

By Pam Hohensee

Every so often, an astute colleague may notice a far away look in Wynn McCloskey’s eyes. Few realize that, in this moment, the ghostly shipwrecks of the deep are beckoning to him in a voice only he can hear.

A self-described “history nut,” this attorney has combined his life-long fascination with boats and love of history by becoming a “technical diver” – one who dives beyond the limits of recreational diving – to see the wreckage of ships hundreds of feet beneath the sea.

With an undergraduate degree in marine science from Johns Hopkins and several summers spent working on fishing boats in Alaska, it was only a matter of time before Wynn turned to diving. As a law student at the University of Virginia in the mid-1980s, he became certified as a recreational diver, and later a scuba instructor. By the early ‘90s, Wynn had become part of an elite group of people called technical divers.

In recreational diving (up to 130 feet), divers’ tanks are filled with air, and no decompression is needed during ascent to the surface. In technical diving (deeper than 130 feet), a diver may need decompression stops to avoid the sickness known as the “bends,” and will use a breathing mixture other than air (“trimix”). Technical divers very often dive solo and typically spend about 20 minutes on bottom, followed by hours ascending through required decompression stops.

The concept of technical diving is relatively recent. Until the early ‘90s, there was no special certification or training for technical diving, and while divers have been engaging in this higher risk diving for years, their ability to do so was based solely on their experience, training, and knowledge of the special equipment and breathing mixtures required.

When Wynn takes time off from his busy commercial litigation practice at Yetter, Warden & Coleman, he is not going to Hawaii or Cape Cod to sip drinks with little umbrellas while swinging in a hammock. He is headed off to join his shipwreck diving brethren to descend into a cold, black world deep beneath the sea. He is drawn to these dark depths to see something we land lovers cannot -- a glimpse of history in a moment frozen in time for one ship and the people who perished with it.

There are tens of thousands of shipwrecks around the world, many from World War II when thousands of merchant ships and U-boats were sunk. Wynn especially loves diving these war casualties: “You can go to Gettysburg every year and read and imagine what the battle must have been like, but shipwrecks provide a picture of history on the day the ship went down.”  Some wrecks remain intact after years under the sea, while others are broken up. Human remains are not often visible because they are usually well inside the ship.

Wynn’s dives have taken him to many places around the world, including the Bikini Atoll in Micronesia to see abandoned warships used for nuclear testing after World War II; Scapa Flow off the northeast cost of Scotland to see British warships sunk during World War I; and Malaysia, to see the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battle cruiser Repulse, sunk three days after Pearl Harbor by Japanese airplanes.

His most memorable experience, however, was diving the watery graveyard of the Battle of Jutland off the coast of Scotland in the North Sea. On May 31, 1916, British and German warships clashed there in what has been called the greatest naval conflagration of all time; 25 warships were sunk and 8,500 sailors killed. After hearing of an upcoming Jutland expedition, Wynn talked his way on to the boat carrying the group of international technical divers planning to dive the HMS Invincible, Queen Mary, and Black Prince. Wynn made his first dive after midnight in the pitch black. After this daring night dive, and later untangling a hopelessly ensnarled grapple hook, he was warmly welcomed into the group.

While recounting memories of past dives brings a smile to Wynn’s face, a look of sheer joy appears as the next great adventure hovers at the edge of his vision.

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