The Aquatic Connection

Social studies teacher Tom Garmon got the idea when he read a 1993 newspaper article by Michael Cottman entitled, BLACK DIVERS SEEK REST, RECOGNITION FOR AFRICAN ANCESTORS. One definitive statement in the article caught his eye: “Diving on this slave ship allows black people to get beyond the anger and put themselves in the shoes of their ancestors." This powerful image proved to be the motivating factor for a group of AfricanAmerican high school students and several teachers to become certified scuba divers together.

An experienced African-American scuba instructor was needed who could relate to the group and its goal: enter Nathan E. Carter, U.S. Army SGM (Ret.). Mr. Carter, an instructor with the Professional Diving Instructors Corporation (PDIC) and owner of Aquatic Connection Atlanta, was interested in introducing scuba educational programs at historically black colleges. Sheria Enahora, another Mays High teacher involved in the project, heard about his inquiries and contacted Mr. Carter in September 1994.

The first scuba class graduated in March 1995. Two additional groups have since been trained, for a total of 27 divers to date. A fourth class convenes on January 22, with eight students and four faculty members already signed on.

The six week course is taught in two phases. The first phase consists of weekly two hour lectures presented at the Mays campus, followed by weekly two hour skill labs at the Campbellton Road YMCA pool. The student is instructed in the proper use of diving equipment, underwater physics, physiology of the body at depth, diving environment, dive planning, emergency ascent procedures, safety precautions, boat diving procedures, and all necessary skills to be a safe competent diver. Students must pass a PDIC standardized written examination.

The final phase is a 12 hour session conducted in open water at the Blue Water training facility in Pelham, Alabama. During this highly planned, structured, and strictly supervised session, students perform five actual dives, ranging from 30 to 60 feet in depth.

Certification credentials are issued upon successful completion of the program, sanctioned by the Professional Diving Instructors Corporation (PDIC). Periodic "Teen Dives” are organized to allow the new divers to maintain skill levels.

The ultimate goal is to visit Key West and the wreck of the Henrietta Marie by the summer of 1996. Sponsors must be sought out to help finance this educational expedition and the unique opportunity to explore a lost page in American history. These young Atlantans will have achieved their goal when they can read for themselves the inscription on a bronze plaque mounted by the National Association of Black Scuba Divers on the site of the wreck:
 
 

"Henrietta Marie: In memory and recognition of the courage, pain and suffering of enslaved African people. Speak her name and gently touch the souls of our ancestors."

 NEWSDAY

 Key West, Fla. - Strapping. on air tanks and slipping into fins, a team of scuba divers slowly descended into the Gulf Of, Mexico, careftilly guiding a I -ton plaque to a sandy patch on the ocean floor.

Scattered in their midst, under a blanket of sand, lay the wreckage of the 17th-century slave ship the Henrietta Marie. Nearly 300 years after it sank off Key West, shackles remained strewn across the wreckage, a powerful testament to the human cargo that was chained in its hull and forced on a perilous voyage into slavery.

A dozen members of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers gathered recently to honor the millions of African men, women and children who died centuries ago during the brutal and deadly trans-Atlantic journeys. On the cramped decks of the Henrietta Marie and vessels like it, slaves were stacked,. chained by the neck and beaten; nearly a quarter of the people died during the voyages.

And this day was a time for reflection and soul-searching for 12 black men who traveled to New Ground Reef, 35 miles south of Key West, to plunge 30 feet into their past.

For them, it was a time for long talks and tight handshakes, a chance to come to grips with difficult feelings about the slave trade, to put history in to perspective - and to lay to rest the spirits of millions of their faceless African ancestors.

"It gives us a new dimension to what our history is all about," said Oswald Sykes, a retired mental health administrator, from Albany, N.Y. "Diving on this slave ship allows black people to get beyond the anger and put themselves in the shoes of their ancestors, to wonder about the nature of greed, to cry and touch their souls."

The divers spoke fervently about kidnapped slaves bound for bondage in the United States, the Caribbean and South America - a horrifying triangular voyage known as the Middle Passage. They talked of their long-gone forebears who endured atrocities and still managed to make significant contributions to to the world. And they spoke of a spiritual, somewhat mysterious, connection with the part of their history that lies beneath the sea.

"It's an eerie connection," said one of the divers, Howard Moss, 46, an underwater photographer whose 1984 documentary about the Henrietta Marie sparked wide interest in the slave ship among black divers and educators. "There is a powerful presence down there."

"For all that was horrible about the slave trade, it brought the African genius to this country." said Gene Tinnie, a bearded, 6-foot-10-inch English professor at Miami-Dade Community College. "These early Africans made a painful contribution to this world and their gifts to America are still not yet totally realized. Through the Henrietta Marie, we get to learn more about our early ancestors. This is an incredible window into our past."

As the dive boat, the Island Diver, rocked gently in the breeze after the 31/2-hour ride to the site of the wreckage. Mr. Sykes, clad in a black wet suit, led the dive team in a brief memorial service before going overboard.

The Henrietta Marie, a 120 ton British schooner, sank in the Gulf of Mexico in 1701 after slamming into sharp coral and breaking in half during a violent storm. One part of the ship settled behind the reef and was buried in sand, while currents scattered the rest across the top and then past the bowl-shaped reef.

Registered in London, the square-sterned, 60-foot-long vessel carried eight cannons and more than 250 slaves when fully loaded.

Discovered in 1972 by divers who stumbled on it while searching for treasure from another wreck, the Henrietta Marie is one of only three sunken slave ships discovered in America and the only one in the world where artifacts have been recovered and scientifically documented.

"There has never been a fullscale archaeological effort like this in the world," said David Moore, an archaeologist with the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society who has spent 10 years researching and recovering artifacts from the ship.

Mr. Moore helped recover more than 7,000 artifacts from the Henrietta Marie during more than 20 dives from 1984 to 1985, an array of 17th-century furnishings that include two of the ship's cannons, trade beads, muskets, swords, 80 pairs of shackles and manacles - enough for 160 slaves - and the most important artifact, the ship's bell, inscribed "The Henrietta Marie."

The wreckage is shrouded in heavy silt and a blur of marine life, and when the divers' group reached the site on this day, they found visibility of barely 3 feet.

But that didn't seem to bother the divers. Two of them, Ric Powell and Jose Jones, entered the water and, using a flotation device, guided the bronze commemorative plaque and its 1-ton concrete casing on a slow descent to the ocean bottom near a coral reef. Before the plaque touched the bottom, Mr. Jones used his wrist compass to position the plaque toward the east-- facing Africa.

As the plaque was lowered, the other divers began their 30foot descent into the murky, olive-colored water and watched the silt swirl on the bottom as the plaque made its solid impression in the sand. The divers hovered over it, taking pictures and reading the inscription: "Henrietta Marie: In memory and recognition of the courage, pain and suffering of enslaved African people. Speak her name and gently touch the souls of our ancestors."

Oswald Sykes settled on the ocean floor and began to rub the plaque, staring into the inscription. After almost seven minutes, a fellow diver touched Mr. Sykes gently on the shoulder and extended his hand. As if a spell had been broken, Mr. Sykes locked hands with the diver and shook it furiously. He swam to the surface and punched his fist into the air as they surfaced.

"I could feel their souls," Mr. Sykes said later. He separated from the other divers and spent a few minutes alone, collecting his thoughts and reflecting on what had been the most significant dive of his life. "It was like I was touching them," Mr. Sykes said. "I know they are there."