Underwater Labyrinth: Wedged Beneath the Waves

A keen diver, Nikki Daniels is never happier than when exploring the open seas. 50 feet underwater is her home from home. But in the summer of 1999, one wrong move turns her happy place into the scene of potential tragedy. Trapped within an upturned World War One ship at the bottom of the ocean - with low visibility and scant supplies of oxygen - Nikki must think and act fast if she’s going to solve this deadly puzzle. And putting herself in even greater danger may offer her only chance of escape… A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Edward White | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Jacob Booth | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or 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] Our sister podcast Short History Of… has a new book! Pre-order your copy of A Short History of Ancient Rome now at noiser.com/books Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

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• 1:06John Hopkins?

  It's August the 22nd, 1999. A mild summer's morning in Portland Harbor on the south coast of England.

• 1:15John Hopkins?

  On the surface of the English Channel, all is calm. Boats bob serenely on the water. Seagulls call out overhead.

• 1:24John Hopkins?

  Beneath the waves, however, a different world reverberates.

• 1:30John Hopkins?

  Deep down in the murky depths is a relic of a bygone age. A vast battleship, sunk during the First World War, lies on the seafloor. Upside down, the secrets of its glory years hidden from view.

• 1:46John Hopkins?

  Fish swim through its rusty hull, riddled with holes.

• 1:52John Hopkins?

  And somewhere in this vast underwater labyrinth, a young woman is trapped. Although precisely where and by what, it's impossible to know.

• 2:04John Hopkins?

  Encumbered by her diving gear, 22-year-old Nikki Daniels tries to wriggle her way free from whatever it is that's wedging her in place. But no matter how hard she tries, she cannot move. She cannot escape the wreckage.

• 2:20Speaker 03

  I just, I couldn't quite believe it. It was extraordinary that I was completely and utterly stuck.

• 2:26John Hopkins?

  Nikki isn't alone. Right next to her is her boyfriend, Chris, floating freely in the water. He tries frantically to wrestle her loose, but the more they struggle, the worse things get. Panic sets in. Nikki breathes harder and harder. Her oxygen cylinder is rapidly emptying. With every passing second, her situation grows more desperate.

• 2:51Speaker 03

  I couldn't see a thing. There was absolutely no visibility at all. So, zero vis. I tapped my finger on my mask and I couldn't see my finger. You're under so much pressure because you know you've only got a certain amount of time to get out of the situation you're in.

• 3:08John Hopkins?

  The clock ticks. Time seems to be rushing past. Nikki tries to focus on her training, but nothing has prepared her for this.

• 3:18John Hopkins?

  To compose herself, she takes a deep breath.

• 3:22John Hopkins?

  She can only hope that it won't be her last.

• 3:25Speaker 03

  This is it. This is life or death. So, if you don't get to grips with this in the next few seconds, you're dead.

• 3:39John Hopkins?

  Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice?

• 3:48John Hopkins?

  Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives.

• 4:00John Hopkins?

  In this episode, we meet Nikki Daniels. A keen amateur diver, Nikki is never happier than when exploring life within the open seas in Britain and far beyond. In the summer of 1999, she goes on an expedition with her diving club. It's the kind of thing she's done dozens of times before. Fifty feet underwater is her home from home. But one wrong move turns her happy place into the scene of potential tragedy.

• 4:28Speaker 03

  I went into thoughts of, my god, 22 years old and I'm gonna die. Like, literally, do I have 10 minutes? Do I have 20? I don't know how long we've got to get out of this.

• 4:38John Hopkins?

  Trapped within an upturned ship at the bottom of the sea, with low visibility and scant supplies of oxygen, Nikki will need to think and act fast if she's gonna solve this deadly puzzle. And in order to escape, putting herself in even greater danger may be her only option.

• 4:57Speaker 03

  I mean, to die like this, this is absolutely ludicrous. And I said to myself, there must be a way out of this. Think of it.

• 5:06John Hopkins?

  I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

• 5:39John Hopkins?

  It's 9 a.m. on Sunday, August 22nd, 1999, just off Portland Harbour, Dorset, on the south coast of England. Aboard a diving boat out at sea, six divers are kitting up. Equipment is checked and securely fastened: dry suits and fins, oxygen cylinders and eye masks, stabilizer jackets, torches, knives, and underwater watches. The smells of sea water and sun cream float on the breeze.

• 6:10John Hopkins?

  For 22-year-old Nikki Daniels, this is all routine. In fact, she went through the exact same procedure yesterday. Today is her second dive of the weekend at this very spot. But for her, this isn't a tedious preamble. It's the countdown to being transported to another universe.

• 6:28Speaker 03

  The excitement of diving, it starts when you're kitting up on the boat. You know, you're getting your masks sorted out, you're doing your final kind of checks. So we're checking our air is okay. And then you do the okay and down signal. And then just going below the surface, there's a whole world under there.

• 6:49John Hopkins?

  Nikki's love affair with life underwater began as a child, growing up in Carshalton, a town on the outskirts of South London.

• 6:58Speaker 03

  I think I was more fish than child. I was always in the water, just absolutely loved it. I've always called it my happy place.

• 7:06John Hopkins?

  As a schoolgirl in the 1980s, Nikki was fascinated by the ocean. She daydreamed about swimming with dolphins and exploring their habitats.

• 7:16John Hopkins?

  But it seemed the stuff of fantasy, the kind of thing that other people did, not her.

• 7:22Speaker 03

  I'm going up in the 80s, where would that opportunity have even been? I don't know. It's just my mom and I at home, we didn't have money to spare. So I don't think I would have even given it a thought.

• 7:34John Hopkins?

  But all that changed when she turned 18 and began studying at Kingston University.

• 7:39Speaker 03

  I literally walked in the door of freshers fair, you know, where they have all the stands and the clubs and sports and things you can join. And there was this group of people who became lifelong friends in the end. Running scuba club, I didn't know they had a scuba club. And I just was, oh my God, I can go diving, this is accessible to me.

• 7:57John Hopkins?

  Nikki fell in love with her new pastime. It was at once thrilling and unexpectedly soothing.

• 8:05Speaker 03

  It's just, it's magical, it's absolutely fantastic. And I found that any worries that I had above the ocean, sort of life worries, stuff going on at home, whatever that might be, stresses, as soon as I was underwater, that just literally just disappeared.

• 8:28John Hopkins?

  Nikki left Kingston University in 1998. But she remained involved with the scuba club, participating in dives at the weekend. Now a year on, they've reconvened for their latest jaunt, an exciting two-day dive at a special spot just off England's southwest coast. It's the site of HMS Hood, a battleship that's been languishing at the bottom of the sea since 1914.

• 8:55John Hopkins?

  The ship was deliberately sunk at the start of the First World War to create an underwater barrier, protecting Portland Harbour from potential attacks by German U-boats.

• 9:06John Hopkins?

  Any sunken ship is a tantalizing prospect for inquisitive divers, but Hood offers something extra.

• 9:14John Hopkins?

  Back in 1914, explosives were used to send the vessel to the seafloor. A hole blown in the side filled it with water, Hood soon capsized and ended up rooted nearly 60 feet below the surface, upside down. It makes for a highly unusual diving location, a jungle gym under the water, shrouded in darkness, full of obstacles and features to explore. Newbies might be wary when encountering HMS Hood for the first time, but Nikki is well acquainted with the wreck.

• 9:52John Hopkins?

  As she checks that kit on the boat on the morning 22nd, she's preparing for what will be her 17th trip to the sunken ship. Placing her feet into her fins, Nikki looks around at her half dozen companions, five other divers and the boat skipper.

• 10:10John Hopkins?

  As usual, they'll be diving in pairs. It's a crucial part of the health and safety protocol.

• 10:16Speaker 03

  Safety is absolutely key to scuba diving because so much can go wrong and it can go wrong so quickly. And it's all about staying with your buddy so that you can help each other if there's a problem. You're always thinking of what have I got with me that can help keep me alive really. You've got your computer on your wrist showing you the depth that you're at. You've got your gauges to show you your compressed air levels. There's an awful lot of health and safety that needs to be involved to get you home.

• 10:45John Hopkins?

  Nikki flashes a smile across the boat at her buddy for this weekend. It's Chris, her boyfriend. They've been a couple for two years and Chris has been Nikki's buddy for almost half of the 100 or so dives she's ever done.

• 11:01Speaker 03

  We knew each other obviously very well and we worked well together as a buddy pair because we took it very seriously. We had talked about descending to the seabed, making our way to the wreck, and we wanted to go further inside than we had done before because you dive the wreck a lot of times and you want to see something different. But the trouble when you've done something like that for a while, there is a danger that you become a bit overconfident.

• 11:27John Hopkins?

  Deep under the sea, there's no room for complacency. On their own, in the gloom of the English Channel, they'll have nobody but themselves to make sure they return safely to the surface.

• 11:43Speaker 00

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• 12:13Speaker 04

  My name is Taylor. The economy is crushing moms like me right now, even working full-time. My paychecks went straight to childcare and all of the bills. Nutritious food is really important to me.

• 12:26Speaker 05

  High food costs and changes to nutrition programs constrain family budgets. Your donation helps Feeding America provide the nourishing food families need.

• 12:35Speaker 04

  I'm hopeful for stability.

• 12:36Speaker 05

  When budgets strain, your gift sustains. Give now at feedingamerica.org/communityresponse.

• 12:49John Hopkins?

  It's 9:30 a.m. Nikki and Chris are perched on the side of the boat. It's nearly time. Strapped to her back, Nikki has a 12-liter oxygen cylinder, comfortably enough for the 25-minute dive they have planned. Chris has a 15-liter cylinder, and attached to that, he's got an extra three liters in a small emergency cylinder. Safety first. They put their air regulator mouthpieces in place. Then, one after the other, they roll into the waves.

• 13:26John Hopkins?

  In the cool English water, visibility isn't great.

• 13:32Speaker 03

  The sea in the UK is murky at best. So generally, you can't see too much of where you're going. But you can see a buoy line. You pull yourself down the buoy line, equalizing your ears as you go down. And then you start to see the boulders that are on the seabed, near the harbor wall.

• 13:50John Hopkins?

  As they descend, visibility improves. Teeming aquatic life presents itself. Silvery shoals of fish swim around the clumps of white coral. Huge, spindly spider crabs scamper across the seabed. The current swirls in their ears. Creatures send out strange clicking noises. Nikki can even hear the sand shifting beneath her.

• 14:23John Hopkins?

  She and Chris swim even further into this alternate world. Soon the wreck comes into view. It's a spooky sight. Upside down edged in the murky green light.

• 14:37John Hopkins?

  Nikki has explored wrecks in other locations. They're always spectacular.

• 14:44John Hopkins?

  In warm, clear waters, some sunken vessels can be seen in their entirety, like a model ship at the bottom of a fishbowl.

• 14:53John Hopkins?

  But HMS Hood is different.

• 14:58Speaker 03

  The whole thing is on its head, so things that were screwed into the deck are now on the ceiling. It's very rusted and in a few pieces, but you're trying to work out what you're looking at. I know some novices who thought wrecks are terrifying, but I just found them really fascinating. And the ship was so big, it's roughly 125 metres long, so it's huge. And just a fascinating place to be, really.

• 15:24John Hopkins?

  Nikki and Chris swim towards the wreck, a submerged ghostly wall of steel 400 foot long. All along its side are large ragged holes. Each tells a story of the violent sinking and the subsequent decades of slow decay. They glide through the ship's ruptured side.

• 15:47John Hopkins?

  Bubbles from their breathing apparatus rise toward the surface as Nikki and Chris disappear into Hood's dark interior.

• 15:56John Hopkins?

  But in their eagerness, they have forgotten something.

• 16:01Speaker 03

  The safest thing to do is to have a line, a safety line, that you can secure to the outside of the wreck and kind of follow it in, and you reel that in as you go. So it's kind of like a Hansel and Gretel dropping their crumbs and then following their way back. For whatever reason, we decided not to do that that day. And looking back, that's like a step that I'm aware we missed. And then actually, I think once you've missed one safety step, you're probably going to miss another safety step.

• 16:33John Hopkins?

  From the inside of the wreck, Nikki is struck by its eerie beauty.

• 16:39John Hopkins?

  Daylight filters through the holes they've just entered. Divers call these "blue windows". Under torchlight, the hidden world of HMS Hood is revealed. It's alive with creatures of the deep, seeking shelter in its recesses, darting through the water in search of prey. Nikki kicks her fins and pushes deeper into the ship's belly.

• 17:05John Hopkins?

  HMS Hood is a baffling time capsule. Below her is a mass of detritus from naval service nearly a century ago. Above her is a trove of ancient machinery. Giant hoists and pulleys, engine gears and forbidding gun turrets, hang like rusting stalactites in a dank, dark cave.

• 17:28John Hopkins?

  In its seafaring days, this equipment was all bolted tight to the ship's floor. Now, after eighty-five years upside down in the water, the structure is breaking up. From time to time, chunks of the metal above clatter to the seabed.

• 17:45John Hopkins?

  Dangers are everywhere, but Nikki and Chris are in their element.

• 17:49Speaker 03

  It's an adventure and it's your explorers, really. You're kind of picking away across tonnes of rusted metal, basically. And as we got to a certain point, we looked up and there seemed to be like a hatch above us that looked intriguing. And we signaled to each other, "Okay, we're gonna go in, let's have a look. Perhaps it takes us to another section of the ship."

• 18:18John Hopkins?

  Chris goes first. Nikki watches as he propels himself up through the water. His head disappears into the narrow opening, then his torso.

• 18:29John Hopkins?

  As he fades from view, Nikki calmly follows. It's intriguing, this little pocket they've discovered. Who knows where it might lead?

• 18:39John Hopkins?

  In no time, she is entering the hatch. Once through, she spins around to face Chris. And as their eyes meet, an awful realisation hits both of them.

• 18:51Speaker 03

  His face was horrified, his eyes were huge, as if he's kind of going, "Oh my god, stop, don't come in." But it was too late because I was already in.

• 19:01John Hopkins?

  What Chris has discovered is not a monstrous sea creature or an old underwater explosive, but something just as dangerous. The opening he has swum through isn't a hatch leading somewhere new, it is a dead end, the opening to a storage space, probably only two metres in length, depth and width. It's dark and almost completely sealed.

• 19:27John Hopkins?

  The only way out is the narrow aperture they've just entered. In the vastness of the open sea, this is how they find themselves, side by side in this tiny enclosed space.

• 19:40Speaker 03

  I think there was a moment of, "Oh god, alright, we've really mucked up, this is not good, we need to get out of here immediately."

• 19:47John Hopkins?

  Their immediate problem is that they're both the wrong way up. Their only point of exit is the opening they've just swum through. They now need to turn themselves upside down in order to swim out again.

• 20:00John Hopkins?

  Easier said than done. With little in the way of light and burdened by the kit they're wearing, turning around in this small underwater space isn't straightforward. It might be impossible.

• 20:14John Hopkins?

  Nikki attempts to manoeuvre herself into position. As she does so, she brushes against a five inch pile of silt, thick gloopy sand that swirls up into the water in front of her.

• 20:27Speaker 03

  My heart just sank, the whole lot kicked up, and Chris just disappeared. I couldn't see a thing. I tapped my finger on my mask and I couldn't see my finger. So I fell down by my waist and I had my torch there, I quickly turned it on, and these are pretty heavy duty underwater torches, and I could see a pinprick of light. So that's really telling me how bad this is.

• 20:56John Hopkins?

  In the darkness, Chris reaches for his own torch. He switches it on. But again, it's almost as if the bulb was blown. The thick silt swallows any hint of illumination.

• 21:10John Hopkins?

  As sand clogs the water, Nikki's body floods with fear.

• 21:15John Hopkins?

  Experienced diver though she is, she has never been in this kind of danger before.

• 21:20John Hopkins?

  Encased by silt, unable to see, speak, or move freely, a feeling of claustrophobia kicks in.

• 21:28John Hopkins?

  Her heart pounds. Beneath the layers of her dry suit and underclothing, she begins to sweat.

• 21:35John Hopkins?

  Being stuck in a small dark space anywhere can be frightening. But more than fifty feet under the sea, with limited air, there is a very real chance that this cupboard could turn into an underwater coffin. In the space of just a few seconds, a dreamlike dive has turned nightmarish. It's hard to believe how quickly things have unraveled. Silently, Nikki rages at herself.

• 22:00Speaker 03

  We should never have both come into a space that we didn't understand, we didn't know where it led. What have we done?

• 22:11John Hopkins?

  In retrospect, the safety line could have forestalled disaster. Had they fastened a line to the outside of the wreck, it could have provided an easy escape route. Perhaps. But it's all academic now. Self-flagellation is of no use to anyone. What's needed is a practical plan. It's Chris who makes the first move. Despite the obvious restrictions, basic verbal communication is possible underwater, just about.

• 22:39John Hopkins?

  Chris begins to shout a few short words. Unable to see his face, Nikki listens intently. She hears enough to understand the plan.

• 22:49John Hopkins?

  Chris will turn himself upside down and feel his way to the opening. If Nikki holds on to him, they will, with any luck, be able to exit one after the other.

• 23:01John Hopkins?

  It's an imperfect plan, but there's no apparent alternative. If they're to get out of here, they'll have to do it by touch alone. Chris turns in the water, Nikki's hands resting on top of his oxygen cylinder. The movement causes the silt to stir once again.

• 23:18John Hopkins?

  Nikki can feel him searching his way down. Her hands are now on his waist, then his legs. Eventually, she feels his fins. She grabs hold of them before he moves out of reach.

• 23:31John Hopkins?

  Chris swims through the opening. He is now safely on the other side.

• 23:37John Hopkins?

  Nikki anxiously reaches her hands out in front of her. And there it is, the edge of the hatch.

• 23:45Speaker 03

  So, okay, I'm in the right place. Really aware that I'm now on my own in a dark, pitch black cupboard. Upside down breathing isn't very comfortable underwater. The bubbles kind of all around your face, which isn't great. So I put my head down and I fell through the hatch and I started to lower myself. My head was out, my upper body and my arms. I couldn't get any further. I was completely wedged.

• 24:16John Hopkins?

  Unable to see what's holding her back, she shifts from side to side like a fish flailing in a net. It's no use. She's stuck tight.

• 24:26John Hopkins?

  Hanging upside down, Nikki attempts to free herself. She wriggles backwards inside the cupboard. Her hope is to move herself clear from whatever obstruction is in the way. She tries it once and again and again. Yet every time she hits the same problem. By this point, Chris, from the other side of the hatch, is trying to pull her free. He heaves on her stabilizer jacket. But it's to no avail. Nikki is going nowhere.

• 25:01Speaker 00

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• 25:31Speaker 04

  My name is Taylor. The economy is crushing moms like me right now, even working full-time. My paychecks went straight to childcare and all of the bills. Nutritious food is really important to me.

• 25:44Speaker 05

  High food costs and changes to nutrition programs constrain family budgets. Your donation helps Feeding America provide the nourishing food families need.

• 25:53Speaker 04

  I'm hopeful for stability.

• 25:54Speaker 05

  When budgets strain, your gift sustains. Give now at feedingamerica.org/communityresponse.

• 26:03John Hopkins?

  It has now been at least 15 minutes since they entered the cupboard. At the start of the dive, they each had enough oxygen to last 30 minutes underwater. But that's predicated on normal breathing patterns. In all likelihood, Nikki has very few breaths left.

• 26:22Speaker 03

  I knew I was breathing really heavily. And I knew in the back of my mind, the quicker I'm, the harder I'm breathing, the more air I'm using, compressed air I'm using up from my cylinder, which at some point is going to run out. So, how long have I got? I was panicked, but I was also kind of incredulous about it. I was like, seriously? Death recorded as hanging upside down in a rusty old wreck on the South Coast? You couldn't make it up, could you? That's ridiculous. Such a stupid way to die. I wasn't upset. It was more kind of a practical, what if you don't make it out? How devastating for my family and my buddy with me. How will this affect him? He could get to the surface, but this will still affect his life. How is he going to tell my mom about this? How horrific?

• 27:07Speaker 03

  So just all these thoughts and just breathing like a steam train.

• 27:12John Hopkins?

  Now Chris is panicking too. He continues to yank at Nikki's stabilizer jacket, pulling forcefully at her shoulders.

• 27:20John Hopkins?

  Yet, no matter how hard he tries, she stays stuck.

• 27:25John Hopkins?

  Through the water, Nikki can hear the dull, flat sound of her boyfriend's shouting. And if her oxygen is depleted, then so is his.

• 27:36John Hopkins?

  The intensity of the moment is elevated by sensory deprivation. The darkness of the cupboard, the thick, blinding murkiness, the enforced muteness of being underwater.

• 27:46John Hopkins?

  Yet, in other ways, Nikki is overwhelmed by a cacophony.

• 27:52Speaker 03

  It was just chaos because the bubbles are quite loud, so I'm breathing hard, bubbles are everywhere. He's shouting, dragging on my kit to try and get me out. It's still really dark. He's super stressed. I'm super stressed, thinking, well, maybe it's all over. To die like this, this is absolutely ludicrous.

• 28:13John Hopkins?

  An inflection point has been reached. Unless Nikki can grab hold of the situation immediately, it's curtains.

• 28:23John Hopkins?

  She reverts to her training, the basics she was taught at the start of her diving career.

• 28:29Speaker 03

  It was excellent training in our club, older divers, very experienced instructors. And it was instilled into us, like, there is no room for panic. There is a point where you have to deal with what's in front of you. I mean, fall apart later, by all means, but you have to tackle what's in front of you, or people die.

• 28:49John Hopkins?

  Nikki shuts her eyes and inhales.

• 28:55Speaker 03

  And I literally held my breath to just find a moment of like zen, I suppose, a moment of calm, just to be like, right, okay, just, just take a second. And I held my breath and I said to myself, there must be a way out of this. Think of it.

• 29:14John Hopkins?

  Nikki pauses her breathing. She relaxes her body.

• 29:19John Hopkins?

  The trail of bubbles rising from her apparatus disappears.

• 29:25John Hopkins?

  Hovering nearby, Chris's eyes widen. All he can see is that his girlfriend has stopped breathing.

• 29:33John Hopkins?

  There's no way he can know that she's centering herself. It appears that Nikki's oxygen has run out.

• 29:40John Hopkins?

  She's either unconscious or dead.

• 29:44John Hopkins?

  Chris bursts into action again, shouting and pulling at her. While Nikki tries to regulate her breathing, his is rampant.

• 29:54John Hopkins?

  That oxygen cylinder strapped to his back will soon be running on empty. Nikki has to ignore Chris's distress for now. A plan is needed.

• 30:05John Hopkins?

  She holds her breath for perhaps as long as 30 seconds.

• 30:09John Hopkins?

  Eventually, she exhales.

• 30:13John Hopkins?

  And as she does so, a revelation strikes.

• 30:18Speaker 03

  Then I breathed out, and the answer presented itself. And there was just this incredible moment where a voice in my head, that I think was my subconscious, literally said, "Crystal clear, you are not stuck. Your kit is stuck." In my flapping about and panic, I hadn't considered that. And that was the answer.

• 30:43John Hopkins?

  Chris can see Nikki breathing again. The nightmare for now has been averted.

• 30:49John Hopkins?

  From hanging lifelessly a few seconds ago, she now speeds into activity. Piece by piece, she jettisons her bulky equipment.

• 30:58Speaker 03

  Quickly, I started unbuckling all my kit. You've got like shoulder clips, waist clips. I just started ditching everything I could. Because I thought, well, I don't know what is stuck, so I'm getting out of all of this. And then I can just go to Chris and we can get out.

• 31:14John Hopkins?

  But not all of her kit is willing to oblige. One piece in particular will not shift. It's a hose attached to the front of her dry suit, there to allow compressed air into the suit from the cylinder.

• 31:29John Hopkins?

  Nikki swipes her arms at Chris. She mimics what she needs him to do. He follows her lead. Within a few seconds, the hose is unfastened. The most cumbersome piece of kit is the most important. The oxygen cylinder. But that must go too.

• 31:48John Hopkins?

  She takes one last breath, removes her regulator mouthpiece and abandons all her diving paraphernalia to the swallowing silt. And just like that, Nikki is free. Upside down, head facing the seabed, she swoops out of her equipment and away from the cupboard.

• 32:09John Hopkins?

  Without her kit, she looks like some rare marine life form. A mythological beast dwelling at the bottom of the sea.

• 32:18Speaker 03

  It's just me, in a mask, a suit, and some fins. And I'm sixteen metres underwater. So that was quite a surreal experience, because it felt so wrong.

• 32:29John Hopkins?

  Not to mention utterly perilous. Far from being saved, Nikki has swapped one potentially fatal situation for another even more intense one. That last gulp of air from her cylinder has not lasted long. Bubbles escape from her mouth and nose. Her aching lungs scream for another breath. She turns to Chris and sees the shock in his face.

• 32:53John Hopkins?

  But there's nothing she can say to calm the crisis. Her chest tightens. Every cell in her body thirsts for oxygen. She's on the brink of blacking out. And the instinct for self-preservation kicks in.

• 33:08Speaker 03

  So I either need to find another regulator mouthpiece for some air, or I think that's it. And the only one I could see, unfortunately for him, was the one in his mouth. And it's every man for themselves at that point. And I rudely grabbed the mouthpiece, ripped it out of his mouth, and shoved it into my mouth and took a huge breath. Thank God.

• 33:31John Hopkins?

  Filled with this moment of relief, Nikki pushes the regulator back into Chris's mouth.

• 33:38John Hopkins?

  Yet no sooner has the oxygen hit her lungs than her chest begins to tighten once more. The clock is reset. The awful countdown begins again.

• 33:49John Hopkins?

  And this time, not just for Nikki. Panic and exertion have robbed Chris of his oxygen supply too.

• 33:57John Hopkins?

  His regulator mouthpiece back in place, he inhales sharply. But the last of the air is now gone. They have to move.

• 34:08John Hopkins?

  In one fluid motion, Chris pulls Nikki towards him, tucks her under his arm, and begins to kick. He hurtles towards the shimmering blue windows, the holes on the sides of the wreck.

• 34:20John Hopkins?

  It's their only route back to the surface, their only chance.

• 34:30Speaker 00

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• 35:00Speaker 06

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• 35:32John Hopkins?

  Chris powers through the water, frantically kicking his legs and flicking his fins. They edge closer to the side of the wreck. The light of the blue windows grows gradually brighter.

• 35:44John Hopkins?

  For Nikki, the prospect of escape is tantalizingly close, yet still a very long way away.

• 35:51Speaker 03

  I could feel I had breathed out my last breath. And I just thought, I don't think I've got enough to get me to the surface. I thought, God, I've actually escaped. We're gonna get to the seabed, then we have to ascend. And now I don't think I'll make it. So what, now I drown? This is unbelievable. After all this effort, and then we drown. I just need a couple more breaths from somewhere, and I think I could make it to the surface. And I looked around, and I thought, it's possible I might blackout, but we're gonna have to look for any other opportunities. And I kind of asked the world for a second miracle.

• 36:24John Hopkins?

  In search of that miracle, Nikki's eyes dart around her. There's nothing there but the gray-green water, the debris of the sunken ship whizzing past on the floor beneath.

• 36:35John Hopkins?

  And then, the miracle arrives. Well, perhaps less a miracle, more a moment of blessed realization.

• 36:46Speaker 03

  In our panic, we had forgotten he had a small emergency cylinder attached to his main cylinder. I'm looking around, I'm frantic. We're still moving at this point, towards the edge of the wreck. And just as if it had always been there, there was a regulator by my hip, just sat there. And I thought, well, I'll try it. I'm going to see if there's any air in this, and if not, then I think it is game over. And I just took a breath, and it was the emergency cylinder, and it was there, and it had air in. And I could, I just, I was elated, I couldn't believe it.

• 37:19John Hopkins?

  This three litre cylinder is a godsend. Theoretically, there's enough here to last them both to the surface. What they must do is buddy breathing. It's a scuba technique of sharing oxygen between diving partners in a controlled fashion.

• 37:37John Hopkins?

  But there's no way for Nikki to explain all this. In their race against the clock, Chris is fully focused on getting out of the ship as soon as possible.

• 37:46John Hopkins?

  Nikki prizes the regulator from her mouth and offers it to her partner. He doesn't respond. He's fully locked into an emergency procedure of his own.

• 37:55Speaker 03

  In his mind, he was on a mission, and he was getting us to the surface and out of this.

• 38:00John Hopkins?

  With Nikki still tucked beneath his arm, Chris fins through a blue window. At last, they're out of the wreck. In an instant, the dark ceiling of the upside-down HMS hood has been replaced by an illuminated canopy. Daylight beckons. Now that they're out of the ship, Nikki is able to make Chris aware of the emergency cylinder. Gratefully, he shares the regulator with her.

• 38:28John Hopkins?

  But safety is still so distant. Above them, there's still at least 50 feet of open sea to overcome. And it's not as straightforward as scrambling upwards as quickly as possible. Changes in pressure could cause fatal internal injuries.

• 38:46John Hopkins?

  Once again, it's years of scuba training that hold their only hope of survival.

• 38:54John Hopkins?

  On the seabed, they right themselves, fins facing the sand. Nicky twigs what Chris has planned. It's known as a "seasaw" or "seasaw", a controlled emergency swimming ascent. In this technique, a diver ascends vertically to the surface without oxygen. As they rise through the water, air in the lungs will naturally expand. To ease the pressure and avoid terrible injury, the diver must exhale slowly but constantly. It's easier to do this while making a single, continuous sound. They each take a breath.

• 39:35John Hopkins?

  Nicky grabs hold of Chris's stabilizer jacket and they begin their ascent. He adopts the "Superman" pose, raising his arm high above him. He tilts his head back to keep his airways open. Then he begins to kick his legs, his fins displacing the water around him.

• 39:55John Hopkins?

  And he starts his long, loud exhale, an underwater shout to carry them to the surface.

• 40:04John Hopkins?

  They rise quickly through the water. Nicky grips onto Chris for dear life. The water around them is peppered with bubbles. Face to face, she watches Chris intently, with astonishment and anguish.

• 40:19Speaker 03

  It's quite frightening to witness. And we rushed through the murky green to the surface, bubbles everywhere.

• 40:27John Hopkins?

  They continue to rise. The surface is 30 feet away, then 20, 10. They are now just a few feet away. And then, the breakthrough.

• 40:39John Hopkins?

  They race out of the water as though flying through a glass ceiling.

• 40:43Speaker 03

  We came out of the surface like a champagne cork, because I didn't have any weight on me. So I've just kind of, all my buoyancy, straight to the surface. He came up, maybe got half a breath, and went straight back under.

• 40:56John Hopkins?

  Chris sinks beneath the waves once again, before thankfully re-emerging just a few yards away from Nicky. They gasp greedily for air. Treading water, Chris takes a moment to blow into his stabilizer jacket. It gives him buoyancy, easing the burden of staying afloat. They're both exhausted and dumbstruck.

• 41:20Speaker 03

  Just, I think amazed, amazed at what had happened, horrified at what had happened, amazed that we got out of it.

• 41:30John Hopkins?

  Nikki swivels her head in search of their boat. She catches sight of it some distance away on the horizon.

• 41:38Speaker 03

  And then we're both screaming, "Help", just absolutely screaming, just to get out of the water. And the skipper, we could see him looking out kind of towards the continent and he was just away with the pixies. And then eventually, he heard me and he turned around and saw us waving frantically, giving the emergency signal. And he came back to pick us up and he's just looking at me like, "Where is your kit?"

• 42:04John Hopkins?

  Nikki and Chris clamber aboard.

• 42:08John Hopkins?

  Elated but drained, they slump on the deck.

• 42:13John Hopkins?

  It's now they realise that they're the first of the divers back on the boat.

• 42:18John Hopkins?

  They check their watches. Their total dive time has been around 30 minutes, almost exactly the length that originally intended.

• 42:26John Hopkins?

  But that 30 minutes could have barely deviated further from the plan.

• 42:32Speaker 03

  The next kind of 10 minutes or so, our two other buddy pairs came back to the boat. One of our friends says, "How was your dive? How was everything?" And we're just like, I think we were just stunned, silenced and a bit pale. And he's looking around and he's going, "Nikki, where's your kit? I don't understand what's, what's wrong?" And then, of course, we were relating the story to them and of course, they were horrified.

• 42:54John Hopkins?

  The boat returns to shore. Back on dry land, the world continues to turn. Nikki and Chris decompress and try to wrap their heads around their brush with disaster.

• 43:06John Hopkins?

  It's hard to escape the feeling that it could have all been avoided if only they'd attached a safety line to the outside of the wreck.

• 43:14Speaker 03

  It was a mixture afterwards of some anger because we'd been really stupid. There was definitely anger that we'd put ourselves in that position in the first place. There was some guilt as well because what I had nearly done to my, you know, my family, to my poor mum, that just was a horrible feeling. And mixed with absolute elation, we're so lucky to have got out of that. So it was a real mixed bag.

• 43:42John Hopkins?

  There are few physical reminders of the ordeal. Nikki's shoulders are left with large, dark bruises from where Chris tried to pull her free of the cupboard. But these soon fade.

• 43:55John Hopkins?

  The greater legacy is psychological. A year after the incident, Nikki goes diving in Tenerife at the site of a wreck, though a much smaller one than HMS Hood.

• 44:06Speaker 03

  It was crystal clear water, it was pretty good. And the local dive guide had said we could go into this wreck and, you know, swim through and out the other side. And all these different people were going in and I, I couldn't do it. Mentally, I couldn't cope with the idea of going into a wreck because it felt absolutely terrifying.

• 44:25John Hopkins?

  A few years after Nikki's emergency, the authorities deem HMS Hood too dangerous for diving expeditions, though some risk takers defy the ban. It's not something that has ever tempted Nikki. Twenty-six years on, she still contends with claustrophobia. Small, enclosed spaces of all sorts are a considerable challenge for her. She says she looks back on the whole experience with a sense of disbelief.

• 44:54Speaker 03

  I'm forty-seven, I've got two children. If they did anything as stupid as that, I'd be very angry. I think it was very, very foolish.

• 45:03John Hopkins?

  Yet alongside self-admonishment, Nikki takes positives from the experience too. In certain ways, she says, her tale of survival has taught her important things about herself.

• 45:15Speaker 03

  It's definitely given me like that attitude of whatever life throws at me, there's always something I can do. So I've had some really quite serious health issues over about the last decade. But that has been with me, that attitude of you're not just going to sit in this, there's something you can do about this.

• 45:34John Hopkins?

  More than anything, Nikki believes in listening to the inner voice she heard that day. The voice that gave her the answer to freeing herself from disaster.

• 45:44Speaker 03

  I've had that experience in other situations, none as grave as that. But I asked the question, I took a pause to listen and the answer presented itself. It comes from that incident where I refused to believe that there was no answer. And I think that's really stayed with me.

• 46:09John Hopkins?

  In the next episode, we meet Johnny Savage. In April 1998, the 26-year-old is part of a two-man crew ferrying a luxury fishing boat from Florida to Cancun, a routine job that should take a single day. But nearly 100 miles off the coast, the waters turn against them. Without warning, they encounter an incredibly rare natural phenomenon as a yawning, terrifying chasm opens in the middle of the ocean.

• 46:38Speaker 07

  Never seen anything like it before in my life. It was like a hole in ocean. It wasn't like looking forward and seeing like a cliff, like we're climbing a cliff or anything like that, or we're climbing a mountain. It was just normal seas and then it was a hole.

• 46:52John Hopkins?

  Facing a deadly force once believed to be a myth, Johnny and his captain will find themselves caught in a horrifying saga at sea.

• 47:01John Hopkins?

  No one knows where they are. The radio is dead. The life raft is nowhere to be seen, and the warm turquoise waters around them are teeming with predators.

• 47:13John Hopkins?

  That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen right now, ad-free, by joining Noiser Plus.

• 47:20Speaker 00

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• 47:50Speaker 04

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• 47:53Speaker 05

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