| OzarkKing |
07-03-2014 11:01 AM |
Story of dive recovery from Lake Ozark Shootout:
A neighbor recently sold some dive equipment to the Lake's main dive/salvage guy and while he was picking it up I approached him and flat out said, "I bet you have some stories, could you spare a moment to tell me a few?". We sat down and he regaled me Party Cove finds, told me the horrors of the bodies recovered and then told a gem about the Shootout. This was back when it was hosted in front of Shooters 21. One boat (unsure make/model) was running some new high performance engines and had a violent spinout that sheared the back-end of the boat such that an entire engine sunk. This diver was on-site and said, "I'll get that for you for $5,000" to which the owner scoffed and said, "but Lake Ozark Fire and Rescue said they'll recover it for free"..."okay, have it your way". The diver realized that it would be a tough find but he waited the prescribed time period until it became abandoned property (and the Fire Dept. hadn't recovered it). He and his crew 'invented' a device they ran from their boat wherein a low-voltage wire was trolling along the lake floor bottom systematically searching and anytime it encountered something metal, the boat horn would sound (think Ozark engineering) and they'd stop, mark, and dive. After searching the area for hours, they finally stumbled across some exhaust pieces which led to engine pieces and finally the engine itself. They floated it to just below the surface and towed it over to the person who lost it's dock (still submerged). Upon contacting the person they met on the dock and he immediately demanded, "where's my engine?". The diver calmly said, "where's my money". The owner mumbled something about it being a ripoff at $5,000. The diver smiled and said, "It was $5,000 for me to get it the day you lost it when it was still your engine...you abandoned it...now it is my engine and I'm asking if you want to buy an engine for $10,000". The guy ended up paying the premium price to repurchase his engine and when he again demanded, "where's my engine" the diver explained that it was suspended in the water off of his dock as they didn't want to risk any further harm by improperly reviving an engine that was waterlogged and the diver left.
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