On September 18, 2012, a routine operation on the seabed turned into a harrowing ordeal for Chris Lemons, Duncan Allcock, and Dave Yuasa, saturation divers working at a depth of 90 meters (295 feet) in the North Sea. Operating from the Topaz, a vessel stationed 103 kilometers (64 miles) northeast of Aberdeen, the divers found themselves in a precarious situation when the ship's dynamic positioning system failed amidst a gale. This failure caused the ship to drift, subsequently breaking Lemons' umbilical cable, which left him stranded on the seabed with only eight to nine minutes of emergency gas.
Lemons, isolated from his team and faced with the unforgiving depths of the North Sea, attempted to reach the diving bell. However, the ship's drift had pulled his umbilical tight, preventing him from returning. Realizing his dire predicament, Lemons managed to locate a manifold—a crucial point for any rescue attempt.
"Going up to the surface is never an option – you would die from explosive decompression pretty quickly." – Lemons
The situation was bleak. Lemons had to rely on his emergency gas supply, a stark reminder of his finite oxygen.
“We carry these emergency supplies. You never expect to have to use them, but when you’ve suddenly got nothing to breathe it’s an instinctual thing to turn the knob on the side of the helmet to open the supply. That puts you in a very different world: the moment that you open that, you’ve moved from a place where you have this infinite supply to one where you very much have a finite one – about eight or nine minutes’ worth.” – Lemons
With the clock ticking, Lemons faced the overwhelming darkness and disorientation of the seabed.
"It was the most infinite darkness. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. It’s easy to get disoriented at the best of times, with a compass and a light and someone telling you where to go. I knew this enormous yellow structure was probably only a couple of metres away, but I had no idea which direction." – Lemons
Despite his efforts, Lemons was unable to climb back to safety. Left alone on the seabed for an agonizing 35 minutes, his situation appeared hopeless.
“I won’t pretend I wasn’t scared and breathing hard. I realised that even if Dave had been there, the chances of him getting me back to a breathable environment before I ran out of gas were minimal. With nobody there, I decided this was probably going to be it. In a strange way, that had a calming effect; the fear, the panic drained out of me – there was nothing I could do. I assumed a sort of foetal position and was overtaken by grief. A great sadness took over at that point.” – Lemons
During this time, the rescue team aboard the Topaz employed a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to locate Lemons. When they finally reached him, they found him unconscious.
“For some reason, I expected to see Dave on his way back to me, or the diving bell. But when I got there and looked up, there was nothing but the most absolute blackness in the sea above me.” – Lemons
After being rescued and brought back aboard the Topaz, Lemons was placed in a pressurized chamber for treatment. The effects of hypothermia left him unable to recall much of the incident.
“I would have been hypothermically cold very quickly, but I don’t have a memory of that. Maybe your body has an ability to shut out unnecessary information. Or perhaps my memory is not as good as I thought. I feel I’ve got this fairly lucid recollection of everything up to the point where I fall unconscious.” – Lemons
This profound experience was later documented in "Last Breath," a documentary that captures Lemons' incredible survival story.