Do yourself a favor and read Shadow Divers - The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert Kurson. John Chatterton standing next to me along with his German American partner, Richie Kohler (not pictured here) identified what was referred to in the book as the U-Who. John spoke to over a 100 people today at the Topsham Public library about his successful commercial diving career and how it led him to spend five years and most of his savings trying to properly identify the U-who, located 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey. In my opinion, John Chatterton should be as well known in Maine and New England as Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
I promise you that this book will appeal to you whether you are male or female. Kurson is an unbelievable story teller. I'm not an avid reader, but I was spellbound by reading this book.
I'm very glad that I read my Freeport Community Library (865-3307) March newsletter this month. I learned about the John Chatterton talk from Marie McCann who was in attendance with 5 or 6 other fans of Shadow Divers. The library had a Shdow Divers Book discussion group that evening with led by fellow Freeporters Bob Lezer and John Karp. John Karp has an extensive underwater diving and sailing background. John had several harrowing underwater tales to share, two of which were life threatening! It was fascinating to have in attendance a World War II submarine captain who gave us a window into the world of submarine life and culture. He and his wife live off Flying Point Road in Freeport. Several attendees spoke about the recent movie by Nova titled "Hitler's Lost Sub" which features John Chatterton and Richie Kohler and their discovery of U-869, the alias U-Who mentioned above, that sits on the bottom of the ocean in 230' of water.
John Chatterton (http://www.johnchatterton.com/) describes himself as a diver. He related the story of having an epiphany when he woke up from a dream in the middle of the night and got the clear message that he was to be a commercial diver. He soon enrolled in a commercial diving school in Camden New Jersy funded by the G.I. bill. His first commercial dive took place in the Port of Philadelphia in what sounded like an old fashioned dive suit and helmet with people topside controlling his air flow. John said as he descended in the murky water he immediately felt alone and quite uncomfortable. He had almost concluded that when he returned to the surface, he would get in his car and head home, leaving behind commercial diving forever. Yet the calling to be a commercial diver outweighed his initial fears. He would perform many types of work underwater including matters relating to power plants with pneumatic tools, cranes, etc.
He soon became intrigued with ship wrecks and wondered how they ended up on the bottom of the ocean. Was it a hurricane or a torpedo? John started diving deeper. He's gone as far down as 500'. The majority of divers never go beyond 130' feet. John pointed out that there is a huge difference between the simply recreational diver and the diver thirsting for real adventure. One of his first significant dives was on the Andrea Doria that sank in July of 1956 off the coast of Nantucket. There have been 13 wreck divers who have died while swimming around inside that famous wreck. There is a high probability that the divers contracted nitrogen narcosis which John describes as a diver being able to think, but unable to control the functions of his body.
Getting back to John's discovery of U-869. The submarine was built in Bremen Germany and departed somewhere after April 15, 1944. John found a gas canister on U-869 with the 4-15-1944 date. Toward the end of the war, Germany was running short on raw materials including brass tags on hatches that made it more easy for divers to identify earlier U-boats. U-869 didn't have any brass tags on the hatches and the true identity of U-Who came from the electric motor room in a box. It was in the electric motor room that John Chatterton ran out of air after a heavy metal object fell on him. Fortunately, John had brought down extra tanks secured to the outside of the sub. He quickly bolted for the outside of the sub, swimming by his bewildered partner, Richie Kohler who thought he was going mad. John told me at his talk that he never thought about the possibility of death. He said that he berated himself for not being more attentive to his oxygen supply and that he was over eager to haul out several other heavier boxes that would hopefully had the indentity tags in them.
Well, I'd better sign off so that you can go buy a copy of Shadow Divers which has sold over 1 million copies and has been translated into 21 foreign languages. To learn more about the book go to http://www.robertkurson.com/
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