A Southampton couple believe their marriage will last “for ever” after two divers swam to the bottom of Hamilton Harbour and found the husband’s wedding band, which had fallen overboard by accident.

Max and Wynette Curtis praised the efforts of Michael Brangman and Joanne Rogers after the duo spent almost three hours 40 yards out in the harbour in search of Mr Curtis’s ring.

Mr Curtis said that on the evening of April 2, he was wrapping up a sailing trip outside the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club when his gloves were caught in the boat’s sails.

He said: “My hand got stuck in the sail and when I tried to yank it out, the glove and the ring and everything came off.

“The ring was in mid-air and I watched the ring hit the cockpit of the boat then it rolled down to the deck of the boat then it took one final bounce and it was in mid-air again and fell overboard.”

Mr Curtis lunged after the ring, which was custom-made by Astwood Dickinson.

With a smile, he said: “I was concerned about this almost-$8,000 wedding ring that my wife bought me because I am thinking, this is like divorce, because it was custom-made.”

Mr Curtis said it was about 7.15pm and, while his sunglasses and his wrench fell in the water, his focus was on finding the ring.

He dived a few feet down and saw the ring close to his toes but, he added: “As I dived down, the ring was going down.”

Mr Curtis estimated that he was close to 40 feet below the water’s surface and soon realised he could not breathe.

“So now it was survival mode and I thought, well, it was just to get [myself] back up and as I am struggling to get up, my cellphone comes dangling past me and it went down too,” he added.

Mr Curtis said he thought of multiple ways to break the news to his wife.

He added: “I knew where it was, in 40 feet of water but I’m thinking how to tell her I lost the ring.”

The couple, who got married five months ago, decided the next day to search for a diver.

Mr Curtis contacted Ms Rogers and she mentioned that she knew Mr Brangman was a diver who also operated a metal detector.

On April 5, in overcast and rainy conditions, the couple accompanied Ms Rogers and Mr Brangman on a boat in search of the ring.

Mr Brangman, a communications officer with the Government’s Department of Communications, is a trained scuba diver and also trained in operating a metal detector.

He said Ms Rogers accompanied him below the water for safety reasons and, while the two searched the area, they saw Mr Curtis’s wrench.

Mr Brangman explained: “It was really silty and we saw the wrench sticking out, but to find the ring was a needle in a haystack.”

At about an hour into the dive, Ms Rogers’s air tank was running low.

The divers decided to make a “beeline” back to the boat. But they soon spotted Mr Curtis’s phone.

Ms Rogers went ahead and rose to the water’s surface.

About ten minutes after she left, Mr Brangman said: “I got a hit on my metal detector, so I reached down and grabbed a handful of silt and after sifting through, there was the ring in my hand.”

Mr Brangman said he was prepared for the trip, and explained: “The main thing is that I have to know the depth and how long I’ll be down there. But this was more in shore and I had two tanks of air in case I needed more.”

Mr Brangman said he would usually dive down to about ten feet of water, and as such it was the first time he went to these depths.

He added: “It’s a wedding band so that alone shows that it is of sentimental value.”

Mr Curtis said that when Ms Rogers emerged from the water to change her oxygen tank and relayed that the phone was found, the couple were excited.

Moments later, his wife suspected Mr Brangman had found the ring and he explained: “My wife saw a lot of bubbles coming up and we thought all these bubbles mean something’s happening.”

He said: “Michael came up with the ring in his hand and said, ‘Is this your ring?’”

Mr Curtis, who is an avid sailor, said that in future, whenever he has to sail or venture out on to the water, he plans to leave his ring in his wife’s possession.

Mrs Curtis, who celebrates her birthday today, said that although the incident happened almost two months ago, finding the ring was the perfect birthday gift.

She said: “We are grateful to Michael and Joanne for finding this beautiful piece of our love.

“They did take time out from their busy schedule to find this ring, which is very sentimental to me and my husband.”