Diver Dr Woodrow Pattinson drowned after descending toward shipwreck Niagara: Coroner

Dr Woodrow Pattinson died while diving above the shipwreck Niagara, seen here in 1937. The Royal Mail Steamer was sunk in June 1940 when it hit a German mine off the coast of Northland. Photo / NZME

A diver’s dream of reaching a shipwreck cost him his life, as his best friend watched him sink further into the darkness after getting distracted by a school of kingfish.

Dr Woodrow “Woody” Jules Pattinson was 36 when he disappeared during a dive at the wreck of the Royal Mail Steamer Niagara in Northland with his best friend Daniel Smyth on March 15, 2020.

It had been a goal of Pattinson’s to reach the shipwreck at a depth of 100 metres but on that day the diving buddies were only meant to descend to 50 metres, a coroner’s inquest report states.

Smyth and Pattinson had been best friends since they were children and had gone on multiple dives together.

Symth said that although Pattinson liked to “push the limits a little bit” and would sometimes deviate from the agreed dive plan to explore new places, he was still an experienced diver.

Pattinson received his PADI open water certificate in February 2019 and completed five more over the next four months.

He was qualified to dive up to 40 metres and his instructor said he scored 100 per cent on his written test and presented no risk-taking behaviour during the course.

On Saturday, March 14, Pattinson who lived in Auckland with his partner, attended his uncle’s 60th birthday in the Bay of Islands.

Pattinson, who had a PhD in environmental science and worked for an air quality control company, consumed some alcohol but not heavily, according to his father who said his son went to bed around midnight.

The next morning, Pattinson met Smyth at Marsden Point after 9am and they planned out their dive over a glass of wine.

The pair left in Smyth’s boat from Marsden Marina around 1.30pm and each consumed two to three beers.

Taranga Island (the Hen) in the Hen and Chicken Islands, near where the Niagara shipwreck lies off the coast of Whangārei. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Pattinson suggested they dive to 50 metres to say they had gone halfway to the Niagara, which was 100 metres from the surface near the Hen and Chicken Islands.

Pattinson sent a message to his partner saying he might not be home that night as he and Smyth were living out their dream of diving the wreck.

Smyth said during the trip Pattinson talked about death and reincarnation and became emotional at one point.

As Pattinson had been travelling for his uncle’s birthday, he didn’t have his own equipment, so he used Smyth’s.

He had a 5-millimetre full-length wetsuit, two regulators, a depth gauge, fins, boots, gloves, and a rented 12-litre tank.

The pair entered the water around 4pm and tested their equipment before descending the anchor rope to the agreed 50 metres with safety stops along the way.

Smyth was monitoring the depth on his dive computer and signalled Pattinson to stop when they reached 50 metres. Pattinson signalled okay in response.

At that point a large school of kingfish swam by, distracting the pair. Smyth said that because kingfish swim up and down it can be hard for divers to distinguish between up and down.

After the kingfish passed Smyth noticed Pattinson several metres below him holding the anchor line. Smyth followed Pattinson down so as not to become separated from his friend.

It was when Smyth reached 64 metres he knew he had to go back to the surface because their air would become toxic at 60 metres. At this point, Pattinson was about five to 10 metres below him.

Smyth quickly returned to the surface, searching for Pattinson at the surface and when he didn’t resurface Smyth called emergency services.

Due to weather conditions deteriorating after Pattinson’s disappearance, the police dive squad weren’t able to conduct a search until March 25.

They found Pattinson’s body lying on his side on the wreck of the Niagara.

Coroner Alexander Ho outlined the cause of Pattinson’s death with advice from pathologist Dr Julian de Beer who conducted an external review of the diver’s body and concluded the cause of death was drowning.

Constable Seda Clayton-Greene of the Police National Dive Squad said most of Pattinson’s equipment was correctly configured.

Some issues were found with the cylinder which had a high moisture content, the depth gauge was not precisely calibrated and the pressure setting of the regulator was just above factory specifications.

However, none of these factors contributed to Pattinson’s death.

Instead, Constable Clayton-Greene concluded that alcohol consumption before the dive, Pattinson not inflating his buoyancy control device or jettisoning his weight belt contributed to his death.

He also found that Pattinson did not complete a pre-diving plan, had dived deeper than the original depth agreed to, was found without fins which may have come off and did not have a dive computer to see his own depth.

Coroner Ho found that Pattinson’s death was an accident likely caused by becoming disorientated by the school of kingfish, possibly due to symptoms of oxygen toxicity exacerbated by alcohol consumption.

“This was then compounded by his relative inexperience in diving at that depth and resulted in him descending further and failing to take appropriate steps to stop or control his descent.”

He found evidence Pattinson earlier falsely declared he had no mental health issues after having a psychotic episode in January 2019 brought on by recreational drug use, but the coroner said this didn’t affect his diving practice.

The coroner made a number of recommendations including never diving within eight to 10 hours of consuming alcohol, that a non-diver should remain in the boat, divers should abandon their weights when in difficulty, and that divers should follow their dive plans.