meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Real Survival Stories

Deep Sea Diver: Miracle on the Seabed

Real Survival Stories

NOISER

Society & Culture, Documentary, Sports, Wilderness, History

4.81.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A commercial diver finds himself cut off from his support team. When a routine shift goes awry, Chris Lemons is left all alone at the bottom of the North Sea, 127 miles off the coast of Scotland. He has mere minutes before his emergency supply of oxygen runs out. His colleagues will risk everything to get him back. It’s up to Chris to stay alive long enough for them to reach him… A Noiser production, written by Joe Viner. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If just thinking about your bills makes you feel confused and disorientated,

0:05.0

like your head is full of Raspberry,

0:08.0

then you need Monzo.

0:10.0

Download your new favorite bank and pay bills from custom pots.

0:15.0

Money never felt like Monzo.

0:18.0

UK residents, T's and C supply.

0:24.0

It's 10.15 PM on September the 18th, 2012.

0:29.0

127 miles off the East Coast of Scotland, the North Sea rolls under gale force winds.

0:36.5

Large swells break into frothing white peaks.

0:41.2

The driving rain almost drowns the lights of the Bibby Topas, a diving support vessel as it lists from side to side.

0:50.0

But 100 meters below the surface on the seabed, there is deathly calm. Through his diving mask, 32-year-old Chris Lemons scans the black expanse above him,

1:06.0

his panicked eyes searching the gloom for a glimmer of light.

1:18.1

I remember taking a pause I think almost a pause of disbelief when I did land on my back looking up into the sea above me I often call it the sky above me but it's yeah it's definitely the sea above me, the sky above me, but it's definitely the sea above me, the blackness and almost a surreal pause just thinking, you know, where am I, what am I doing?

1:30.0

Against the total silence of the sea, the thud of his heart and the blood roaring in his ears is almost deafening.

1:41.0

Gradually, the reality of what's happening starts to sink in, where he is, how he got here,

1:47.0

and the urgent steps he needs to take if he's going to survive.

2:01.0

Short of breath, Chris draws a lungful of air from the emergency gas bottles on his back, allowing him to think. His crew mates up on the surface, there is only hope, but

2:09.2

finding him down here in the pitch black, all but impossible.

2:14.8

Quite literally, a shot in the dark.

2:18.8

All Chris can do is improve his chances of being spotted.

2:24.0

Somewhere nearby is the steel structure he was sent down here to work on.

2:28.0

It's big and yellow, the size of a two-story house. And yet it is nowhere to be seen.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NOISER, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NOISER and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.