By James Heinz

For anyone who was ever a diver in Milwaukee or southeast Wisconsin, Max Gene Nohl was a legendary figure, like an underwater Odysseus. Oral tales of his extraordinary adventures circulated amongst us. He once held the world record for the deepest dive, was a pioneer in the development of diving equipment and mixed gas diving, did underwater filming for the movies, worked to develop decompression tables to help prevent divers from getting “the bends”, helped establish the still existing Divers Supply and Equipment Company, may have been the first person to invent SCUBA, and salvaged sunken ships, the most famous being the PRINS WILLEM wreck off Milwaukee, which he tried to raise. And now the true story can be told in book form, which is like when the oral legends of Odysseus’s adventures were written down for the first time.

It was known that Max’s 800 page manuscript was in the possession of the Milwaukee Public Library but few had ever seen it.  However, in 2025, after a ten year process, the Wisconsin Historical Society published a 383 page biography of Nohl, entitled I LIVE UNDERWATER, with an introduction by Wisconsin state underwater archeologist Tamara Thomsen, who made a presentation on the book at the Milwaukee Central Library last year.

For most boys, having a near death experience by drowning at the age of 10, followed by seeing the bloated corpse of your best friend bob to the surface after that best friend drowned would be enough to make that boy avoid water for the rest of his life.  Not Max.

Inspired by finding a pocket of air trapped in an upside down sunken rowboat, Max began his career in diving by building a diving helmet out of a paint can, which worked about as well as it sounds like it would.  Like most book reviews, I do not want to spoil the fun by telling you what happens after that, except to say that it gets better.

I was thinking of recommending this book to divers, or lovers of adventure, but decided upon reflection to recommend this book to anyone who is not dead.  It is a rollicking adventure story combining danger and Max’s irrepressible sense of humor with his ability to draw pictures that show you what he is talking about. Multiple copies are available from the Milwaukee Public Library.

The Milwaukee Public Library history book club will be discussing the book at its monthly meeting on Monday, August 24, 2026, at the Tippecanoe Library at 3912 S. Howell Ave. Milwaukee, 5:30 pm.