THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 10, 1994 TAG: 9409100214
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HATTERAS VILLAGE LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
About 25 miles east of Cape Hatteras, 550 feet below the surface of the Atlantic, mired beneath the ever-shifting Gulf Stream, a German U-boat sits on the ocean floor.
No one has seen the World War II submarine since 1942, when an American airplane torpedoed it.
But today, two divers from the Washington, D.C., area may get to explore the submerged vessel - and set a depth record for East Coast scuba diving.
``We've been working up to this for a couple years now. We're basically ship divers,'' Harvey Storck, 44, of Potomac, Md., said from his car phone Friday as he headed toward the Outer Banks. ``We wanted to dive this particular sub because no one ever has before.
``If we can set a new record in the process, that would be great.''
Recreational divers generally don't go much deeper than 130 feet. Pressure at that depth - as well as problems with the gas mixtures divers have to breathe - can be extremely physically taxing. Sometimes such expeditions are deadly.
Storck and fellow diver Ken Clayton, however, have been plunging to depths of 200 feet and more for about five years. In June, they reached 425 feet off Virginia Beach.
The world record for scuba diving is 925 feet - but that was set inside a cave, with no currents, and no moving Gulf Stream.
``Technically, this is a very difficult mega-deep dive,'' said Roger Huffman, a Colington Island diver who will be running the 40-foot charter boat from which Storck and Clayton will descend. ``The currents in the Gulf Stream are quick and unpredictable. The stream itself moves around a lot.
``And at that type of depth, air gets compressed so quickly that every breath eats about 10 times the amount of oxygen people would normally use.''
To explore the 300-foot-long U-576 submarine, which is still sealed with bodies inside, Huffman will drop an anchor from his boat to the submerged ship. The divers will spend about 11 minutes sliding down the anchor line to reach the wreck. They will have three minutes to walk around the ocean floor. Then it will take them more than 2 1/2 hours to slowly resurface, allowing their bodies to readjust in the process.
The explorers couldn't find a camera that would function at such great depths. Since the ship is sealed, they will not be able to bring back any artifacts. But their depth gauges will record the hopefully historic event - and prove they reached their sub-aquatic destination.
``If they make it, it will be a great accomplishment,'' said Jim Bunch, owner of Sea Scan dive shop in Nags Head. ``That submarine is out of reach of most divers in the world. No one has ever gotten down that far on this coast, at least.''
Storck and Clayton each will bring five air tanks with them on their 174-minute dive. Three tanks will be strapped on each of their backs. One will be tied to each hip. And every apparatus will contain a different mixture of gases to help the divers survive.
Most scuba divers carry a combination of nitrogen and oxygen in their tanks. Storck and Clayton, however, will use a mixture of neon and oxygen until they get to 200 fee, then use a helium-oxygen mixture until they reach their 550-foot destination. On the way back up, they will use nitrogen and oxygen, and different combinations of the other gases.
``We'll be one of the first groups to use neon on a deep-water dive,'' said Storck, who owns a direct mail advertising company. ``It's much better than nitrogen because it doesn't distort your perception. You stay completely sober. But it's very expensive so not many people use it. We were lucky. Ours was donated.''
Storck and Clayton, a systems analyst from Springfield, Va., financed most of their adventure themselves. But DuPont Chemical Co. gave them about $1,700 worth of neon for the trip. Other dive shops also donated gases and supplies.
``I'm a little apprehensive about this because I've never gone so deep. But we have excellent equipment. A New York physiologist worked up all of our timetables for us. And we've been building up to this now for a while,'' Storck said. ``I really want this one to come off.''
Storck and Clayton are the only divers who actually will attempt to set the East Coast depth record today. But five support divers will accompany the men on their expedition. Gregory Masi of Annapolis, Md.; Angie Boswell and Kevin Thompson of Virginia Beach; Doug Summerhilll of Westminster, Md.; and Ron Tolbert of Silver Spring, Md., will stop at much shallower depths but will remain on hand for emergency aid.
Huffman said he has not had many problems with sharks during past Outer Banks dives. But the trigger fish that often swim around wrecks are vicious. ``They're real aggressive,'' Huffman said of the pointy-toothed fish. ``They're real, real nasty. And they'll just bite the hell out of you.''
Weather will be the biggest factor determining the success of today's trip. Storck said they can't dive the Gulf Stream if currents are quicker than 1.5 miles per hour.
``The current seems to be OK now, but you never can tell since it shifts so much,'' Huffman said Friday afternoon. ``The water is about 80 degrees. So we'll keep our fingers crossed.
``These guys are pushing the frontier of scuba diving. They - and technology - are opening up a lot of former taboos,'' Huffman said.
``It's almost like they're messing with stuff they shouldn't be. People do die from these trips. But they're not doing it to be safe. There's something inside them pushing them.
``They're doing this now because they feel they have to.''
KEYWORDS: GERMAN SUBMARINE U-576 WORLD WAR II DEEP-SEA DIVING by CNB