Couple Accidentally Abandoned at Sea During Scuba Diving Expedition

It wasn’t until two days later that the captain realized Tom and Eileen Lonergan had been left stranded on the Great Barrier Reef.

Photo by Bobbi Wu on Unsplash

In January 1998, Tom and Eileen Lonergan traveled to Australia to visit the Great Barrier Reef. The American couple, who met at Louisiana State University, had just completed a three-year tour with the Peace Corps teaching underprivileged children in Tuvalu and Fiji. They planned to settle down in Hawaii after this trip.

On the morning of January 25, Tom and Eileen signed up for a scuba diving expedition aboard the Outer Edge, a Queensland-based dive boat operated by Captain Geoffrey “Jack” Nairn and his five crew members. The crew would take up to 26 passengers on a day-long tour of the Great Barrier Reef, stopping at three popular dive sites off the coast of Port Douglas.

Around 3 PM, the Outer Edge anchored 25 miles away from the shore at St. Crispin Reef for the final dive of the day. While some passengers spent the next hour being guided by a divemaster, Tom and Eileen, both certified scuba divers, explored the area on their own.

Once the dive was over and everyone returned to the boat, the captain ordered a crew member to conduct the mandatory head count. But halfway through the check, two passengers jumped back into…