Book on Dave Shaw

Dave Shaw was a Hong Kong based pilot for Cathay Pacific, but also a very keen diver. He took up diving in 1999 and was interested in the opportunities to explore, ideally where no-one else has been. This led to his fascination with deep cave dives.

In October 2004 he and Don Shirley dived in Bushman’s Hole, a cave on the edge of the Kalahari. Dave Shaw reached the cave floor at 270 metres and found the body of Deon Dreyer who had disappeared on a dive there 10 years earlier. After that dive Dave was determined to go back and recover the body, which he attempted in January 2005. Sadly he died on the dive, although both bodies were recovered 4 days later as the support team were removing the line from the cave.

This book is called Raising the Dead and is written by American cave diver, Phillip Finch. You can order it from Amazon. I’m hoping to get a copy before too long, but to whet your appetites, there are a couple of extracts on the Daily Telegraph’s website:

• Extract: Raising the Dead
• Ghost of the Abyss: the story of Don Shirley and Dave Shaw