The Last Dive

A Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean's Depths

By: Bernie Chowdhury

Narrated by: L. J. Ganser

Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Chris and Chrissy Rouse, an experienced father-and-son scuba diving team, hoped to achieve widespread recognition for their outstanding but controversial diving skills. Obsessed and ambitious, they sought to solve the secrets of a mysterious, undocumented World War II German U-boat that lay under 230 feet of water, only a half day's mission from New York Harbor. In doing so they paid the ultimate price in their quest for fame.

Bernie Chowdhury, himself an expert diver and a close friend of the Rouses, explores the thrill-seeking world of deep-sea diving, including its legendary figures, most celebrated triumphs, and gruesome tragedies. By examining the diver's psychology through the complex father-and-son dynamic, Chowdhury illuminates the extreme sport diver's push toward - and sometimes beyond - the limits of human endurance.

©2000 Bernie Chowdhury (P)2003 Recorded Books, LLC

Great Story.

This book does a great history of the family and the kind of decision making that ended, ultimately, in tragedy.

Especially recommended for divers but not exclusively.

Great story!

I bought this a long time ago (or maybe my wife bought it for me?) and I forgot all about it. I actually thought it was a fictional book until I started listening. I scuba dive myself and was happy that the author wrote with knowledge and accuracy on the subject. I haven't dove in a few years but this makes me want to jump back in the water and dive again! after the completion of the book, this has led to many Google searches of the names and places mentioned.

Fantastic Book for anyone intrested in SCUBA

Loved it, although a sad story gave me incentive to be a better diver. In addition to the story it gave some important diving advice and some really good SCUBA history.

Misleading title

I enjoyed this book, but it has much content unrelated to the Rouses' deaths or even their life. The author frequently writes of himself, which can still be interesting. There is a factual disagreement with Shadow Divers about whom to evacuate by Coast Guard helicopter. Not sure which book to trust.

Well Written and Engaging

Very engaging--I never lost interest. Thorough --if you like adventure stories you will like this and learn a lot about diving. Narration was ok but you could hear him taking deep breaths before reading which was kind of weird. I highly recommend this book.

must read for divers

Excellent book about diving and the tragedy of Chris and Chrissy. This book explains the dangers of deep wreck diving and the history of the sport.

Great story destroyed by a heavy breather

A great review and story of people and their willingness to encounter fear and the potentially fatal. Made me do some self reflection. Great read.

Great book, well written informative

As a diver of course it is somber to know people lost there lives in the story being told. However it gives not just a biographical account of these events but also a very deep history of diving. He takes you through the years of underwater exploration as it applies to people in the story. Also if you are a diver you may pick up some tips that just might save your life as each of the accidents are described in detail. Highly recommend. Could not put it down.

We’ll organized and written overall

First, the incessant use of the martini equivalents for depth/nitrogen narcosis is somewhat annoying and strongly reinforces an idea that is not by any means universally accepted.
The starkly conflicting factual accounts of the Andrea Dorea lockout and Rouse helo evac compared to Shadow Divers is interesting and plants a seed of question in my mind about the accuracy both. Hmmm…
Generally. We’ll organized and written account and fascinating to me as a new technical diver.

The Dive Parts Are Good

The diving portions of the book are very good. The author spends too much time with the psychology and sociology aspects of diving and the books starts to bog down. Seems like he was going out of his way to promote Dr Hunt for some reason. You can see how the author also got caught up with how the deep diving and artifact collecting would define him. THe narrators emphasis on non English pronunciations was a bit distracting.