By BILL SCHANEN IV
Ozaukee Press staff
Posted 7-2-09

A 48-year-old man died last week while diving on a shipwreck off Port Washington that rests so deep in Lake Michigan that only a handful of divers have dared to explore it.

Phil J. Patz of Stone Park, Ill., was found Thursday, June 25, on the lake bottom by a fellow diver in 311 feet of water next to the wreck of the Tennie & Laura, which sank in 1903 nine miles southeast of Port Washington, according to Jitka Hanakova, captain of the boat Patz was diving from.

The Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Department, U.S. Coast Guard and Milwaukee Police Department responded to the scene at 3:15 p.m. but were unable to reach Patz because of the depth of the water. Two divers aboard the boat Patz was diving from eventually recovered his body.

Patz was officially declared dead by Ozaukee County Coroner John Holicek at 7:20 p.m.

“We checked with every agency in Ozaukee County and the Milwaukee Police Department and Fire Department and no one had the ability to dive this deep and recover this guy,” Lt. Rodney Galbraith of the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Department said.

Although well out of reach of recreational divers, the 73-foot Tennie & Laura, which was discovered in 1999 during the search for the wreck of the Port Washington-based fishing tug Linda E., is an attraction for technical divers who use mixed gases and sophisticated rebreathing equipment to reach depths unattainable with traditional diving equipment.

The Tennie & Laura is considered to be the most well-preserved scow schooner wreck in the Great Lakes and is listed on the National Register of Historical Places.

Patz, three other divers and Hanakova, who owns the Milwaukee-based Shipwreck Explorers, had gone to the site of the Tennie & Laura aboard Hanakova’s Molly V on the flat-calm Thursday afternoon.

“The conditions were ideal for diving,” Hanakova said.

Diving alone, Patz descended into the darkness and tied a marker line onto the Tennie & Laura, then released a float bag that rose to the surface, said Tracy Xelowski, another diver aboard the Molly V who was supposed to dive after Patz surfaced and anchor a mooring line near the wreck.

“Every indication was that Phil was fine and things were going exactly as planned,” Xelowski said.

The divers on the Molly V saw bubbles that indicated Patz was releasing air from his dry suit on his carefully timed ascent to the surface. Then the bubbles stopped, Xelowski said.

A diver sent to check on Patz found him on the bottom, his eyes closed and his breathing apparatus out of his mouth, Hanakova said.

“Our thought was that maybe he became tangled and needed help, so we sent someone down to take a look,” she said. “We never imagined anything this tragic had happened.”

Xelowski said it was obvious Patz was dead, so the body was marked and retrieved later.

Xelowski said he believes Patz ascended to about 100 feet, then became hypoxic, passed out and sank to the bottom. Hypoxia, a condition caused by a lack of oxygen, or hyperoxia, which results from too much oxygen, are well-documented dangers facing technical divers.

“There’s no doubt this was an extreme dive,” said Ralph Ripple, a veteran Great Lakes diver who owns Divers’ Delight Scuba Charter, which operates primarily out of Port Washington. “This depth was way beyond normal.”

Deep-water Great Lakes divers describe conditions as eerie, with virtually zero visibility and water temperatures that hover just above freezing.

“It’s black with a little bit of a green tint,” said veteran diver Rick Smith of Port Washington, whose deepest dive was 255 feet. “It’s like you’re in the twilight zone.”

Xelowski said he attempted to dive on the Tennie & Laura the day before Patz died and, despite using GPS to find the site, was unable to see it underwater.

“All I found was mud,” he said. “I was probably 20 feet away from it and couldn’t see it. But that deep, you don’t want to be swimming around looking for it.”

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the maximum recommended depth for recreational divers is 130 feet. Technical divers descend to 300 feet or deeper.

Hanakova said Patz was an experienced technical diver who had reached a depth of 440 feet in Lake Superior.

“Not many people go to this depth, but this dive was well within Phil’s abilities,” she said.

Although compressed air is commonly used by recreational divers, it contains 79% nitrogen, which at extreme depths leads to nitrogen narcosis, a condition resembling alcoholic intoxication, and decompression sickness, both of which can be fatal.

Technical divers use mixed gases, often combining helium with oxygen to avoid the dangers of nitrogen. In addition, divers like Patz use closed-circuit rebreathers, which recirculate exhaled gas and absorb carbon dioxide to extend dive times.

Patz’s dive was scheduled to last about one hour, 15 minutes, with only 10 to 15 minutes spent on the bottom. The majority of the dive was to be dedicated to the gradual ascent in which he was to make stops at various depths to decompress.

His timing appeared perfect, but at some point during his ascent Patz may have lost track of oxygen levels, Xelowski said.

Rebreathers use computers and a solenoid switch to regulate the partial pressure of oxygen in the breathing system, but Patz disabled the automated controls on his system, choosing instead to regulate his oxygen intake manually, Xelowski said.

“Phil was a purist, like an Alpine mountain climber who doesn’t carry safety lines,” he said. “There was no way he was going to trust a little switch, so he had to reinvent the wheel and do it himself.

“We suspect he wasn’t paying attention and that was it.”

Hanakova said it’s not unusual for technical divers to dive alone.

“Technical diving can, in a way, be compared to climbing Mount Everest. Every diver needs to be self-sufficient,” she said. “Phil was an accomplished diver capable of diving alone or with buddies.”

There is nothing another diver could have done to save Patz if he blacked out from hypoxia, Xelowski said.

“If Phil went hypoxic, he would have gone hypoxic with or without a buddy next to him,” Xelowski said. “You wouldn’t have been able to make him breathe again.”

Holicek, the county corner, said the cause of death is pending the results of toxicology tests, which could indicate a build up of chemicals in the blood as a result of the dive.

“This is pretty complex stuff,” he said. “It could take some time.”

The sheriff’s department is turning to diving experts to help it unravel the case.

“One of the biggest questions for us is where do we find an expert in this field,” Galbraith said. “As of right now, it appears it’s going to be people in the private sector.

“We’re treating this as a death investigation and our first priority is to determine the manner of death.”

Patz’s equipment was scheduled to be inspected by experts Wednesday.

“The equipment has computers that should be able to tell us what happened,” Xelowski said.

Fatal technical diving accidents aren’t uncommon, he said.

“Once a year or so, someone in the tech community takes a dive and never comes back,” Xelowski said. “It happens.”

On May 20, 2008, Bill Prince, the former owner of the Molly V and part of the team that made the first dive on the Tennie & Laura, died while diving in Lake Wazee, the deepest inland lake in Wisconsin. Patz was also a member of the team that first explored the Tennie & Laura, Hanakova said.

Ripple said the thrills of technical diving aren’t worth the risks.

“We have a 150-foot limit,” he said. “Some people want to go deeper, but they don’t do it with me. It’s just too dangerous.

“I can’t believe this guy went to 300 feet. If something goes wrong at that depth, you’ve bought the farm.”