'Horrible emptiness' overcame Hewitt's dive companion

David Turner

Robert Hewitt's dive buddy recounted yesterday how "a horrible emptiness" came over him when he realised the 38-year-old Navy petty officer was missing.

"I was just numb. It's very hard to describe, but it was a horrible feeling, a real horrible feeling. Then of course the guilt. You start blaming yourself. What if I had done this?" Robbie McIntyre told the Weekend Herald.

Mr McIntyre, a Palmerston North sales manager, said he had decided to head back to the dive boat after having trouble with his ear.

Mr Hewitt had signalled to him he would keep diving for kina and crayfish.

The next three days were torment for Mr McIntyre, who gave up hope that Mr Hewitt would be found alive.

Then, on Wednesday evening, dive boat skipper Aaron Skinner phoned him to say Mr Hewitt was alive after all.

"That was the most amazing phone call I've had. It was overwhelming. The emotions had been on a knife-edge all week. I sat down and had a bit of a cry."

Euphoria was still in the air at the Devonport naval base as well yesterday, at the end of a testing week which began with ceremonial duties at Waitangi and hit an emotional high with Mr Hewitt's miraculous rescue.

The Navy's operational diving team, which hauled him from the sea after his 75-hour ordeal off the Kapiti coast, has been besieged with messages of relief and delight from friends and colleagues.

"They have all been saying thank you for bringing him back to us," said Warrant Officer Brian Kino, second in command of the 19-member specialist team.

Mr Hewitt, trained as a sonar supervisor and ship support diver, retains good friends in the team even though he is now based in Wellington with the Defence Force's joint headquarters.

They include Lyle Cairns and Buzz Tomoana, who pulled him out of the water after reaching into the sea to grab a wetsuit hood they thought they had dropped.

Navy public relations manager Lieutenant Commander Barbara Cassin said the euphoria had yet to wear off.

"People had to sit down when they heard the news. They were absolutely stunned. This is a time of celebration, not just for his family but the whole Navy family."

The officer in charge of the diving team, Lieutenant Commander David Turner, said it was a double boon as most search and rescue operations his unit were involved in ended with the recovery of dead bodies.

Just last week, the team searched all night in vain for a man who disappeared in the Manukau Harbour after rescuing his 10-year-old son from being stuck in a tidal mudflat.

The team's duties range from sea searches to clearing mines and supporting New Zealand's counter-terrorism force as a bomb disposal unit.

Members have to retain an advanced level of physical fitness needed to dive to depths of up to 90m, and must pass a gruelling test every six months.

This includes running, chin-lifts, curls, press-ups and swimming 400m in eight and a half minutes.

They initially undergo 19 weeks of dive training before undertaking intense courses such as medicine and explosives disposal. It is a tight unit, rich in camaraderie, with the motto "Courage, strength and loyalty".

The esprit de corps is such that some members have the team's protective Maori symbol He Tekoteko tattooed on their bodies.

To become a ship support or defence diver, Mr Hewitt underwent a four-week pressure-cooker course in 1988 and has to pass a six-monthly fitness test, although not quite as rigorous as that of the specialists.

This is because defence divers are not allowed below 18m, their activities generally revolving around basic under-hull maintenance and general ship support. They are members of their ships' fight-fighting and damage-control teams.