7. Rodney Temple
On October 14, 1972, Rodney Temple, Bret Gilliam, and Robbie McIlvaine were divers on a scientific expedition off the coast of Saint Croix, which is an island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. On that day, they were taking pictures at a depth of 210 feet underwater. During their dive, Temple saw two whitetip sharks. Both of them were over 12 feet long.
On the way to the surface, the divers needed to stop along the way to decompress. The last man up should have been Temple. However, when a large air bubble rose through the water from under them, Gilliam and McIlvaine knew something was wrong. Gilliam swam down to help, while McIlvaine, who was running out of oxygen, went to the surface.
When Gilliam reached Temple, one of the sharks had bitten him on the thigh and then the second one bit him on the calf. Gilliam and Temple punched the sharks and they let go, but only briefly. The sharks latched back onto Temple and dragged him down. Gilliam held onto Temple and he was dragged down as well. Eventually it got to be about 400 feet below the surface and Gilliam had run out of oxygen. He had no other choice but to let Temple go and swim towards the surface. Miraculously, he made it without drowning. He did suffer decompression sickness, though, and spent two days in the hospital.
Unfortunately, Temple’s body has never been recovered.
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