Dennis Murphy Correspondent • Profile

“When you see the Great Barrier Reef, there's something about the vastness of that whole area,” said Paula Snyder.

“When the water closes over your head, the entire rest of the world goes away,” said Doug Milsap.

It's a scuba diver's nirvana: Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Fourteen-hundred miles of coral and the spectacular sea life that thrives on it.

“It's the big, beautiful seas and the big, beautiful formations,” said Paula Snyder. “Stunning, absolutely beautiful.”

And the bones of a ship on the bottom there is the highlight of any dive trip to the reef. The Yongala lies 100 feet down and is encrusted in coral, her ghostly deck both hauntingly beautiful and a reminder of just how alien and hostile the sea can be to humans.

The coastal vessel had steamed into a cyclone in 1911, taking all hands and passengers with her. In the end, 122 perished, becoming a kind of Australian Titanic.

For 52 years, the site of the wreck went undiscovered to all but the fish and turtles. And then the tourists started coming in droves.

And when in October 2003, the latest of those divers boarded their home at sea for a week of reef exploring and cruising, none could imagine the horror that awaited one of them. The Yongala was about to claim another victim.

Among the guests that week were two American couples, great friends who'd been diving together for 25-years. Ken and Paula Snyder and Ginger and Doug Milsap.

They were introduced to the crew of the Spoilsport, as their big catamaran was called, then mixed and mingled with the other guests.

Paula Snyder: They had little champagne and fruit-type thing going on. And that's where we met Tina and Gabe.

Tina and Gabe Watson turned out to be young honeymooners from Alabama. Gabe was the seasoned diver of the pair. Bubbly, smiling Tina was a novice. A pretty bride.

Ginger Milsap: Beautiful, peaches-and-cream complexion and just as sweet and kind to everybody, very social ... Everybody loved her.

Dennis Murphy: How about him?

Ginger Milsap: He didn't say a whole lot, but he looked like a big teddy bear.

Dennis Murphy: They looked like a good couple to you?

Ginger Milsap: They looked great. I remember Tina being very loving and complimentary toward Gabe.

Paula Snyder: She was just an absolute little princess. And he was tall and strapping and, you know, here they are on their honeymoon. And it was sort of, "Oh my gosh. Aren't they cute?"

Dennis Murphy: So, they're sort of adopted by the group .

Paula Snyder: Exactly. It's kind of like being on your kids' honeymoon.

The wedding, just 11 days before back in Alabama, had been just as romantic as the one Tina had long dreamed about.

Her mom and dad were as proud as they could be of their beautiful girl.

Amanda Phillips: She looked at me and said “I’m a princess bride” and I said, "You sure are." And she left with her dad in the limo … I think I cried almost all day long. It was the last one of my girls to get married.

Tina’s maid of honor and best friend from high-school, Amanda Phillips, was surprised that Tina would choose to go diving on her honeymoon.

Amanda Phillips: I would have said that she would have wanted to go to Europe, or you know, done like, castle tours or done something in the Caribbean, but she said that she wanted to go see the "Nemo" fish. And she wanted to see the sea turtles and go see Nemo.

But Amanda also knew that Gabe had given Tina notice when they were dating that she was going to have to pick up on some of his hobbies -- fishing and scuba diving, for instance -- if they were going to grow together as a couple.

Amanda couldn't believe it.

Amanda Phillips: It made me laugh -- I mean, literally when she said -- "take up fishing." I was like, "What, are you going to put a worm on the hook?" She's like, "No. I got him to do it." And I mean, she just wasn't that type of person.

Tommy Thomas: And when she said that she was going to start taking scuba lessons, it just blew me away.

Cindy Thomas: I worried, and she would say, "Mom, he's a certified rescue diver. You do not have to worry.

Now with her bridegroom Gabe as a dive-buddy, Tina and the other guests settled into their cabins as the Spoilsport motored into the night. The next morning, they awoke to find themselves moored above the first of the dive sights, the much- anticipated wreck of the Yongala.

The dive master briefed the guests on what to expect below: the visibility, the currents. He reviewed the safety procedures.

Then everybody wriggled into their wetsuits, including the two American couples -- the veteran divers.

Ginger Milsap: Everybody just anticipates, you know, the ultimate dive.

Diving the Yongala follows a very set routine. It's not exactly an amusement park ride, but close.

Divers are taken out by an inflatable to a buoy.

Once in the water, they follow a permanent chain down to the bow of the wreck, where it's anchored.

The divers let go of the chain and then let the prevailing current carry them some 300 feet over the deck.

In scuba, this is called a drift dive. When they've taken in the wreck, they grab the second chain anchored off the stern and pull themselves back up to the surface where another dinghy is waiting to take them back to the big boat.

The Snyders and Milsaps loved the experience.

Ginger Milsap: You're literally just drifting along seeing this fabulous --

Paula Snyder: It was incredible.

Ginger Milsap: --Imax of this ship, you know, with all the growth and everything, it really was a feast for the eyes.

The Snyders and Milsaps hadn't seen the honeymooners Gabe and Tina go in the water.

As they were getting ready for a second dive, they noticed a flurry of activity on the back deck where the inflatables were launched and retrieved.

Doug Milsap: I saw crew members running over to the side of the boat. Controlled, no-- no panic.

Ken Snyder: You do this often enough, you realize something just wasn't right. And then when I saw Gabe coming up by himself in the rubber raft, I knew we were missing a diver.

Doug Milsap: He was hitting the side of the the inflatable as it was coming back to the boat. "Oh, my God, I’ve lost her. I don't know where she is. I couldn't find her. I don't know what happened."

A few minutes after Gabe surfaced, the veteran diving friends looked across the water at another dive boat that had anchored nearby. And there on its deck they could make out someone giving CPR to a lifeless female diver. It was Tina, the bride of 11 days.

Ken Snyder: We could see her body on the deck of the Jazz II and see the physicians working on her.

Dennis Murphy: Did you see Gabe?

Paula Snyder: I went over and asked him if I could do anything for him. And he just said, “Well, I need a hug.”

Nineteen minutes passed. The doctors still hadn't given up.

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