Joachim Wendler

Joachim Wendler (June 6, 1939, in Erfurt, Germany[citation needed] – September 25, 1975, in Rockport, Massachusetts) was a West German aquanaut who died of an air embolism while returning to the surface of the Gulf of Maine from the Helgoland underwater habitat.

All three divers were employees of the German firm Gesellschaft fur Kernenergieverwertung in Schiffbau und Schiffahrt mbH (GKSS), which operated the Helgoland Habitat.

[1][4] Wendler, Bussey, and another of the German aquanauts, Joachim Rediske, proceeded to undergo a 49-hour decompression inside Helgoland, which was completed at 6:30 p.m. on September 24.

It was later theorized by Captain George F. Bond, the "Father of Saturation Diving", who was participating in the project, that Wendler may have been lifted ten feet or more by a passing swell just after taking a deep breath.

Wendler spent two hours in the chamber, attended by GKSS medical supervisor Anthony Low, M.D., before being pronounced dead.