The second of my non-fiction journey of 2026. This is an engrossing true story of a group of divers who discovered and identified a lost Nazi submarine of the coast of New Jersey in 1991.
The story starts by setting the scene – to be a wreck diver (!) in 1980s (!) New Jersey (!) took a special kind of bravado, and the cast of characters has that in spades. The diving scene was full of hard drinkers, turf wars, and daring, sometimes knuckleheaded, quests. Everyone in this small but passionate community was looking for the next big discovery.
The story mostly centers on John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, expert divers who start out at odds with each other’s style, history, and personality, but grow close over the many years that they lead the search for this sub. Kurson talks about their youth and what shaped their personalities, their diving style, and their deepest ambitions. They work in hand-picked teams of divers, and Kohler also gives the background of those individuals, although not as in-depth.
After the discovery of the sub, Chatterton and Kohler go on a many-years long journey (sometimes a physical one, to Germany and DC) to identify the sub and figure out how it could have been lost. While not as exciting as the dives, it is still super interesting – they spend days in the archives in DC, they fly to Germany and meet with U-Boat experts, they find niche hobby clubs full of WW2 sub hobbyists. It makes you appreciate how much information is really out there if you need to find it — and not on Google! At the end, Kurson pulls this all together in a respectful and lovely tribute to the crew of the doomed sub, recreating their final days in Germany, which coincided with the final days of the war.
The discovery and identification of the sub took a huge toll on each diver – 3 divers died horrible, terrifying deaths. Chatterton and Kohler’s marriages fell apart. Kohler treats each of these episodes with respect — although I wish there had been a little more appreciation of the wives’ perspectives; like if my husband was working full time and diving every weekend for years while I was at home with 3 small children…I would have some opinions about that.
The descriptions of the dives and rescue missions were vivid and often terrifying. I thought Kurson did a good job of summarizing the technical details, including the floor plans of the subs, the divers’ strategies, and the dive equipment, without getting lost in the weeds. As a recreational diver, I felt my heart actually racing during some of the scenes, and literally had dreams about them later – it was probably not a wise choice to read this while on a weekend diving trip. I liked the part where the diving community in the early 90s is discovering new air mixes that can potentially extend their dives and minimize the negative effects. The team is divided – Chatterton is all about it — to the point where he is mixing it himself it IN HIS GARAGE omg can you imagine — and Kholer says absolutely not, too dangerous and untested, normal air is good enough for me.
However, I also found some of the sections repetitive, especially towards the middle of the book – lots of reminders about how dangerous and extreme diving is, how even excellent divers can get turned around, lots of reiterations of Chatterton’s and Kohler’s personalities which had already been well established. After a while these felt real cut-and-paste filler, which is unnecessary and annoying when the story is so compelling on its own.
A great read if you are into diving, wrecks, WW2, or stories about human tenacity, extreme expertise, and/or foolhardiness.
