Were that the case he would have struggled to surface, not curled up on the bottom.
Maybe I'm being naive. How could someone just choose to sit on the bottom and drown? If you try it the next time you are in the water you would find how difficult it is to curl up at the bottom without floating back up.
Then there is the body's natural reaction to scramble for air and try to get to the top.
I'm sorry but I find it hard to believe Dennis just 'gave up'. The eyewitnesses said he was in good spirits that day. He had overcome far worse than his financial problems at the time and losing the boat. It was a tragic drowning accident.
I drowned when I was 4 years old. No, not near-drowned-- drowned. Drowning does not always result in death. In this case, it was close. I obviously can't say what happened to Dennis, but I can recount what happened to me and I think I can make some fairly educated assumptions.
It happened in a hotel pool in Anaheim, CA, and it's one of the most vivid memories I have. I fell off a float into 3 feet of water. Unable to keep my mouth above water, I was unable to breathe and my autonomic response kicked in. Panic. Utter fear and violent struggle. Whether I knew what was happening or not didn't matter; my nervous system did. I kicked my legs and flapped my arms but to no avail. I remember these movements becoming less erratic as the seconds passed, surely due to the lack of oxygen to power my muscles. I have no idea how long this lasted.
When I could no longer move, the panic left completely and gave way to a sense of complete relaxation and comfort. I remember giving up trying to breathe and coming to some warped notion that it wasn't necessary. That I could just float there underwater, completely relaxed, in perpetuity. No air needed. I even thought to myself, "How dumb of me to think I need air down here!"
Aside from that, there was no emotion at all. Just a keen sense of the water on my skin, in my mouth, in my eyes, and the sounds of the water. I tilted my head as if to rest. Not a muscle in my body contracted. I'm not sure how long I remained in this state, but it continued until I heard loud voices and was yanked from the water. I have no memories of the event after being pulled from the water, but apparently my dad was able to resuscitate me poolside.
Given my own experience, I believe Dennis did not "just let go" in the sense that some of you believe. I believe his autonomic response kicked in and he fought for life until his body gave up, at which point he felt the same sense of relaxed euphoria that I did. He did give up-- not because of some my-life-sucks-and-I'm-tired thought process, but via a physiological coping mechanism designed, perhaps, to make the victim's inevitable exit less traumatic. At that moment, his tense muscles relaxed and he rested.
Not romantic at all, given the terror that precedes the calm. But if his experience was anything like mine, his last few seconds maybe weren't so bad.
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