In the fall of 1991, deep wreck diver John Chatterton found a German U-boat under 230 feet of water off the New Jersey coast where no U-boat had ever been recorded sunk. According to all the history books, it simply couldn’t be there. It took Chatterton and fellow diver Richie Kohler six years, multiple dives to recover artifacts, exhaustive record searches through the National Archives and the Naval Historical Center, multiple trips to Germany, the solicitation of an endless anecdotal history from other divers, U-boat crew members, their relatives and U-boat historians, and above all a mutual devouring obsession to solve this enigma at the heart of Robert Kurson’s Shadow Divers. But that’s just the plot on which hang the other, even more gripping stories, the ones about the price of friendship, the testing of character, the insanity of war, the writing of history, the human love for mysteries and the equally human need to solve them, and through it all an over-the-shoulder look into the claustrophobic and sometimes fatal world of deep wreck diving.

Shadow Divers is a quest story, and, as those often are, a story of obsession. It chronicles the discovery of a sunken U-boat off New Jersey by a group of die-hard wreck divers and their six-year campaign to identify that relic.

In 1991, when Bill Nagle and his small band of fanatics first ran across the sub in question (eventually identified as U-869, sunk in 1945), what we now call “technical diving” was in its gestational period. The equipment hadn’t progressed much past what Jacques Cousteau would recognize, and a great deal of the knowledge base had been cobbled together from practical experience, cribs from the Navy, guesswork and bravado. A tiny number of loons would ride this thin bubble of safety down 200 or 250 feet through what were usually extremely challenging conditions (cold/heavy currents/low-to-no visibility) to visit historic shipwrecks and collect souvenirs. That some number of them died in the attempt is no surprise.

John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, the two heroes of the story (you know them from the series Deep Sea Detectives), transform what started as an artifact-hunting expedition into a life-consuming obsession that busted both their marriages, nearly killed them, actually killed three of their fellow divers, caused fights and broken friendships, and cost them a great deal of money before they finally succeeded. Kurson spends a lot of time focused on Chatterton and Kohler, including lengthy diversions into their backstories. They were Kurson’s business partners in writing the book, and while Shadow Divers isn’t exactly hagiography, it’s not unexpected that the two men come off perhaps better than they would have in more independent hands.

What Kurson labors mightily to do, but doesn’t quite succeed in the trying, is to make the depths of Chatterton’s and Kohler’s obsessions accessible. There’s lots of explanation, true, and lots of rationalization on both men’s parts. However, as the costs and dangers mount, it’s often difficult for the reader to square the reward with the stakes. You’re required to take a fair amount on faith and ride whatever connection you’re able to form with the men themselves to get through the prolonged dark-night-of-the-soul sequences at the end of Act 2.

Kurson’s writing is fast and atmospheric. He manages large infodumps with enough grace to keep the pace going. He’s able to illuminate the action – which often consists of men inching their way though tiny compartments in zero visibility – in a way that non-divers can fathom and divers can easily imagine. Strangely enough, the chapters that ought to be the most interesting (those reconstructing the sub crew’s last months) are instead flatly journalistic, reading like a newspaper feature rather than the high drama Kurson manages to wring out of the diving sequences. Non-divers will thank Kurson for avoiding much of the gear porn that often clutters the stories of men taking part in highly technical pursuits.

I’ve had this book on my shelf for several years. I’m a diver – advanced open water, EAN, rescue – and I enjoy wrecks, so this ought to have been a perfect read for me. I always found reasons not to get to it, though. This hesitation ultimately boiled down to my reluctance to read highly dramatized accounts of divers dying. (I’ve never seen, and will likely never watch, the film Open Water for the same reason.) When you’re 120 feet down, relying on a collection of rubber and metal to keep you alive and a whole chain of events to get you topside and to shore, you don’t need more bad pictures in your head. Diving wrecks is something I enjoy, not something I feel a need to die for.

Shadow Divers is real-life action/adventure, a portrait of near-insanity, and an exploration of what our inner demons can drive us to. If you enjoy or appreciate ships, history, or discovery stories, or can’t get enough Krakauer or Junger, you should consider this book. If you read Cussler and want to know what underwater exploration is really like, try this. It’s not a neat or happy story, but quests don’t often end neatly or happily.

Shadow Diving is an in depth, or “deep dive” (sorry, the devil made me do it :) study into the profession of wreck diving. John Chatterton and Richard Koehler are premier world class scuba divers who discover a sunk submarine off the coast of New Jersey.

This is a subject I knew nothing about and the author nicely tied in the art of scuba diving, the discovery of the submarine, the WWII U boat history and the lives of the submarine seamen. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this.

I always say that if I'm reading nonfiction, it's got to be as compelling as a good fiction read. This one definitely is.

I'm filled with awe for the guts, determination and persistence of John Chatterton and Richie Kohler in researching the origins of this Uboat wreck. This story has everything - heroic "characters," nail-biting adventures, lessons in history, a touching story of friendship, and an emotional ending. It's just a truly great read. If you've got an adventure-minded teen, give them this book.

My hat is off to author Robert Kurson for the extensive research he did to share this story with readers.

I know about the Nova special (Hitler's Lost Sub - see YouTube) but this needs to be a mini-series!

I totally love Robert Kurson, if you ever want to read a good historical novel this is the one. This is the first time in a long time that I felt the urge to continue reading in order the see the end of the story. What an amazing ride Mr. Kurson. Amazing!

I do have to say Chatterton and Kohler are insane individuals who risked their lives for no reason other than to solve a mystery. But this was a really cool story about ordinary people discovering a sunken German U Boat off the coast of Jersey and over the course of 7 years or so doing countless dives and hours of their own research to discover the identity of the U Boat. Great story about resilience and that anyone can leave an impact on history if they’re willing to put the work in. I do think this was a little long and didn’t need to dive (no pun intended) into the divers’ personal lives as much. I would have been fine with it solely focusing on solving the mystery.

The Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson is a 5-star read for me! What an amazing, well-told true story about deep-sea divers who discover a wreck buried off the NJ coast and spend years unraveling its previously unknown story. Fascinating subject, colorful characters, suspenseful and gripping plot combining history and mystery--this book has it all. It's among my top 3 nonfiction reads, the other two being Boys in the Boat and Elephant Company. Can't recommend it highly enough

Well, I've done some calculations, and it turns out that there are precisely one-bagillion ways to die while deep water diving. As I'm neither Boyle, nor Dalton nor Henry I won't be going into grave (as in watery grave) detail vis-à-vis the laws of physics that make humans so ill-equipped to brave the pelagic depths of the sea.* Things like n  nitrogen narcosisn can impair even a master diver's decision-making skills, and those decisions can often be fatal. Wreck diving, the subject of this riveting read, adds a bevy of other hazards to the diving-danger equation.

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By the time you've thrown together the variables specific to n  John Chattertonn and n  Richie Kohlern's quest to identify a previously unexplored (and undocumented) U-boat found off the coast of New Jersey, splash time seems like suicide. However, this isn't just a story about people doing something extremely dangerous (which, admittedly, has an appeal). There's a reason that others have likened this book to John Krakauer's n  n    Into Thin Airn  n and Sebastian Junger's n  n    The Perfect Stormn  n. n  Shadow Diversn is a story with rich characters who are woven into a broader history that seems to almost inevitably lead to the adventure at hand.

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This book will also get your heart pumping (which is ok, since your oxygen gauge isn't running low) if you're at all into WWII military history. Author Robert Kurson does a great job of making this about mystery and curiosity, while keeping a respectful distance from the politics of it all (not in a Hitler was a great guy kind of way, in a everyone wants to know what became of their loved ones kind of way).

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I'm likely not doing this one justice, because it's the details and the slow build of the relationships, the thirst for knowledge and the love of the unknown that made this so worthwhile.

* If, like me, you find studying the various gas laws to be a fun leisure time activity, check out Andy Davis' n  The Physics of Divingn page

Bonus example of something you do not want to happen while diving:
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Listened to Pirate Hunters and immediately picked this up. Again. Brilliant. A blend of biography, history, science, culture. All the things that make me sit forward. It fully engaged my emotions and made the last two days of paperwork at my job go very quickly.

“The diver’s slightest movement—a reach for a dish, a kick with the fin, a turn to memorize a landmark—can stir the silt and disturb visibility. At times of such stark darkness, the deep-wreck diver is more a shadow diver, aiming at the shapes of a shipwreck as much as at the shipwrecks themselves.”

“He was now just a few feet away from pushing his tank through the gap and igniting this crazy plan, but he still had a moment to dip his shoulder and turn back, to U-turn on this mystery he had all but solved already. He never stopped kicking.”

Very well written and fascinating nonfiction. I found myself holding my breath several times. Even if you’re not necessarily into diving (me) this will keep you turning the pages.

SO GOOD!!! The history, the adventure, the suspense, the research, the tragedy, the entire thing was just awesome. Loved it.

A fascinating story of two deep sea divers who risked their lives and their families to discover a German U-boat off the coast of New Jersey. The author did a good job of detailing the dives to the point that, at times, I felt I was down there with them. He did a good job with making it suspenseful. A very interesting read!