I love Halloween and I think it’s a brilliant celebration! Facing our fears by embodying them and laughing at them is, in my opinion, the best way to exorcise them and make them harmless.
I know that for most divers the greatest fear is that the dive gets canceled… but I also know that, like all those who revolve around the sea, the “Diver” loves telling stories — mostly true, but let’s be honest, often enriched with details to make them more interesting, just as the finest seafaring tradition demands. So I decided to browse the internet and see how many ghost stories — or rather, urban legends with a scuba-diving theme — I could find. The first one, of course, was the old, overused, and completely unbelievable tale of the diver sucked up by a Canadair aircraft and later found among the branches of a tree that had survived a wildfire… how boring.
Then I found other stories that were much more entertaining. Below you will find them summarized and grouped into two main themes — the ones that, in my opinion, are the best. Feel free to tell them before or after a night dive, or during your dive school dinners, to give the newest members of your group a good scare.
The Ghost Diver
There are two versions of this story. In the first, the divers are on a liveaboard trip in one of the many tropical paradises every diver dreams of visiting. After returning from their first dive, while filling out their logbooks together, a small group begins talking about what they saw when, at a certain point, one of them, looking slightly concerned, asks whether anyone had noticed the diver in the white T-shirt who had followed them throughout the entire dive. None of them seems to have seen him. As a precaution, they mention it to the crew of their boat who, after making sure that none of the divers on board matched the description, try contacting other boats by radio to get news of the diver who might have gotten lost and perhaps be far from his own vessel. No one knows anything about the diver in the white T-shirt but, even more unsettling, no other boats were in the same dive area that day… With no reports of missing divers, the matter ends there and the group continues their cruise carefree, without thinking about the episode again.
After several days of beautiful and relaxed dives in this tropical paradise, it is time to head back to the port they departed from. One of the last day’s dive sites is in the area where the diver in the white T-shirt had been spotted, but by now no one remembers the incident. The rest of the cruise has been so wonderful that it erased any shadow of doubt. The usual group of divers descends together and, as always, everything is stunning: the colors, the fish swimming around you, the play of light and shadow between the cracks in the rocks. Just as they are observing the wall, in a darker area, they catch sight of the diver in the white T-shirt — this time all of them see him. Instinctively, to get a better look at who it is, they all point their torches at him, but at that moment the diver vanishes into thin air!
Brrrrr I don’t know about you, but it gives me chills, especially when I think about how many times (almost always abroad) I have encountered lone divers who joined my group, only to disappear again — though usually there were plenty of boats and other dive groups clearly visible!
There is a slightly different version of this story involving a diver with a pink tank and a blue hole, but the essence is the same. Reassuring confirmation that it is just an urban legend 🙂
In version number two, the setting changes a bit. We are no longer in a beautiful, sunny tropical sea but in colder waters, and it is the middle of the night… A group of four experienced diver friends meets for a late-night dive, after midnight to be precise. The water is very cold, but they are properly equipped with drysuits, gloves, and hoods. After wandering around for a while enjoying the wonderful nocturnal fauna of the dive site, they decide, as they always do, to form a circle on the bottom and turn off their torches for a while to admire the spectacle of bioluminescence.
At the agreed signal, they all switch off their lights. At first, they see nothing, but as soon as their eyes adjust to the dim light, they realize that there is a fifth diver in the circle with them! They all freeze in surprise. The fifth diver has no torch, no hood, no gloves, no boots, and is wearing a wetsuit despite the extremely low water temperature. And as if that were not enough, he has no fins. After a few seconds of exchanged glances, the mysterious diver smiles and swims away using a breaststroke kick, leaving the four friends terrified….
What can I say… night dives are beautiful, but who has never had the feeling that something might be hiding in the dark? 😉
The haunted wreck
If abandoned houses are the natural setting for ghost stories on land, their underwater equivalent is undoubtedly shipwrecks.
Two stories struck me the most: the first, which I had already heard told by divers who frequent the dive center, concerns the wreck of the Dunraven in the Red Sea. It is a steamship that sank in the 1800s after striking a reef. Less well known than the Thistlegorm, which also has its own haunted-house atmosphere with all its cargo still in the holds. The other story takes place in Turk Bay in Micronesia, the site of what they call the Japanese Pearl Harbor. In this strategic bay during World War II, dozens of warships were sunk along with their cargo of weapons, supplies, and human lives.
Although the sinkings occurred for very different reasons and belong to different historical periods and locations, these two dive sites share one chilling detail. Many divers who have explored the waters where these wrecks lie undisturbed swear they have heard the sound of their engines, as if they were still running after all these years underwater. Surely there must be a logical explanation for these noises but… unfortunately, no one has found it yet. Moreover, some divers report having heard… human voices.
So the next time you find yourself diving on a wreck, try listening carefully. Who knows, you might hear the sound of ghostly engines and the spectral voices of the crew still engaged in their maneuvers… for eterniiiiiiity.
Boo!
My “real” experience with a haunted wreck
At the beginning of my career as a dive guide, I had the good fortune to collaborate with a dive center in San Vincenzo, the town I come from. The dives there are quite particular, almost exclusively wrecks and mostly dating back to the two World Wars. All these wrecks lie on muddy seabeds and each of them has a unique feature that makes it special. One, however, left a particularly strong impression on me: the “Seal.” Among the local guides, there was a rumor that it was the only one haunted by a ghost.
Said like that, it may not sound like much, but diving at around 40 meters with visibility of about 40 centimeters (on a good day!) on a wreck that everyone claimed was haunted, even armed with all possible skepticism, always gave me a fair amount of anxiety. The peak (of my fear) came one day when, strangely enough, there was better visibility than usual and in the diffused light you could make out almost the entire outline of the wreck like a misty shadow. I was calmly guiding the dive when I noticed something I had never seen before… it looked like a windsock. But this wreck is a landing craft — and upside down, at that! Just as I was thinking that was impossible, the “windsock” withdrew back into the wreck! Yes, I know, of course it was one of those gigantic conger eels that typically use wrecks as their home, but in that moment, for a second, I truly believed I had seen the infamous ghost of the “Seal”! Now I laugh about it, but I have never been so happy in my life to finish a dive as I was that day ;)))
I found many other scuba-themed ghost stories, but to the eyes of a real diver they seemed less believable than these. If you know any others, share them with us in the Facebook comments under the article post — it will be fun to see which one is the scariest! And remember, when telling these stories atmosphere is essential, along with a torch lighting your face from below — but make sure it’s a dive torch!
A terrifying Halloween to everyone!
