Report on the Recovery of Wayne Clausen from Stroomwater on 9 September 1985

At 22h10 on Sunday 8 September 1985 I received a telephone call from Steve Craven advising me that Wayne Clausen had disappeared while attempting to free dive a sump in Stroomwater Cave near Oudtshoorn. As Steve was on duty that night and the emergency involved cave diving, he asked me to take charge of a rescue party, if this was required.

My immediate concern was the possibility that Wayne had emerged in a pocket of air and was still alive. Although the chance of this having happened was remote, I felt that immediate steps should be taken to find him as he was not wearing a wet suit and would therefore be suffering from hypothermia. I contacted Lee Hall, Anthony Hitchcock, Peter Swart and Jean-Paul Van Belle and put them on standby. I then telephoned Lieutenant Kemp of the S.A.P. in Oudtshoorn who confirmed that Wayne was missing in the cave and I gave him my telephone number in case of further developments.

I then telephoned Jan Blacquiere who advised me that a team of seven people, comprised of Wayne, Trevor Hall and five guests had entered Stroomwater from the main entrance and had proceeded to the sump near the far end of the cave, arriving there at about 12h00. Wayne decided to free dive the sump without a life line and with no experienced backup caver present. He disappeared from sight and when he did not return, Cal Sheppey, a guest from Rhodes University, tried to locate him without success. Wayne was holding a waterproof hand torch but the water visibility was very poor and soon became zero. After some 15 minutes the party left a caving torch (switched off), a carbide lamp (burning) and some food at the sump and returned to Melville House to raise the alarm.

The first action was taken by the Municipality in an attempt to drain the sump by means of a pump from the "Graveyard" entrance (so named many years previously) to the cave but, due to problems with the pump, this proved to be fruitless. I advised Jan that I felt a team of divers and cavers should leave for Oudtshoorn as soon as possible and he agreed with this.

I then contacted Dr. McMahon of the Metro Emergency Unit who offered us a four wheel drive ambulance and two men. I accepted this because we needed the additional transport for heavy equipment and I was still hoping that Wayne was alive and would therefore require urgent medical attention when found. Finally I contacted Bob Grey of Camp and Climb who offered us a mini-bus as transport for the five SASA members.

We took with us ropes, life lines, four diving cylinders, two sets of diving equipment, a high pressure compressor, a caving ladder and other miscellaneous equipment. Metro supplied charged batteries and lights, a stretcher (but not the SASA one that was unable to be located) and medical equipment. At 22h30 I advised the S.A.P. in Oudtshoorn that we would be leaving shortly and would meet at the Police Station.

At 00h15 on Monday 9 September the five SASA members, Bob and two Metro personnel, namely Piet and Leon, left Cape Town two hours after Steve's first phone call to me and we arrived at the Oudtshoorn Police Station at 05h30. The Police drove to Melville House to collect the other members of the party who were in Stroomwater with Wayne and we met them and Bill Skinner of the Adventure Centre, at the "Graveyard" entrance to the cave at 07h00. Sergeant Basson of the S.A.P. was stationed at the cave entrance the whole day and relayed messages when required. It should be stressed that the Police were at all times most helpful and supportive.

After a short discussion, we decided to start the search at the "Graveyard" end as it was only about 100 metres from there to the sump, as opposed to 900 metres from the main entrance to the sump. Lee, Piet, Anthony and myself arrived at the sump and I dived with scuba equipment with Lee acting as standby diver using a second set of scuba and Piet and Anthony handling the life line. The sump dipped a few metres and then went slightly to the right with the visibility at zero. About 6 metres into the sump I felt Wayne's feet to which I attached a rope and the rope attendants assisted me in getting him to the surface. At about 08h00 a message was sent to the people outside the cave that the body had been found.

The body was put in a body bag and secured with rope and some slings. The exit was slow, due to the tightness of the passage and some rocks had to be chipped away. It took until 14h30 to get the body out of the cave with people working in shifts, everybody lending a hand. Jan organised a low pressure compressor and a pneumatic hammer in case we required it to enlarge the passage, but this was not used. Before we left Anthony, Piet, Jean-Paul and Bill drove to the main entrance of the cave and proceeded to the other side of the sump to collect Wayne's caving equipment left there the previous day.

By 18h00 I had made a detailed statement to the S.A.P. and we left for Cape Town where we arrived at 23h00.

Remarks

1. If the SASA Code of Practice for Cave Diving had been adhered to this incident would not have occurred.
2. The time of 10 hours from the time Wayne disappeared until I received the first call was excessively long, and the reason for this delay should be investigated. If we had been notified immediately we could have used air transport during daylight hours. This would have been of particular significance had Wayne still been alive.
3. It should never be assumed that a diver or a caver is dead until he is found or it is unreasonable to assume otherwise.
4. Fully charged lamps were not available from SASA members but fortunately Metro supplied some.
5. The Oudtshoorn Police should have available some SASA members' names and telephone numbers and should be made aware of our capabilities.
6. It appears that Wayne's dive was done without taking into account the fact that the water level was about 1 metre higher than normal, thus making the sump a lot longer than anticipated.
7. No life line was used, the cavers had not slept for over 24 hours and were physically low and most of the people in the group were novice cavers.
8. On the positive side the fantastic co-operation from SASA, Metro, Camp and Climb, the Adventure Centre, the Police, the Oudtshoorn Municipality and the Divisional Council made the whole operation run smoothly and was an operation with which SASA should be proud to be associated.
9. I would like, in particular, to thank the SASA members as, without their fast and efficient response, this operation would not have been possible.