One Engineering Marvel, Five Men, and a Disaster Ten Miles Into the Darkness
Hardcover, 432 pages
Published Feb. 18, 2014 by Brand: Crown, Crown.
A true disaster story that explores the lives of the divers involved, up to the disaster, and then continues to show how that disaster continued its effect on their lives afterward. Fascinating look at the complexities of huge, ambitious public works projects and the unknown heroes that make them possible and risk or even lose their lives in the process.
Trapped Under The Sea tells the story of the final construction on the massive Boston Harbor clean up treatment outflow pipe, a massive undertaking sending a 20+ foot diameter tunnel over 9 miles out into the ocean, under the sea floor. But before the project could be completed, 53 65 pound "plugs" had to be removed from the diffuser pipes at the very end of the tunnel.
An added complication was that, due to inter-agency squabbling and worries about cost and time, all of the support systems used to dig the tunnel, like air, light and electricity, were pulled out. So a team had to drive out in the pitch black tunnel, with a killer lack of oxygen, and pull the plugs.
After much squabbling, a barely believable plan was hatched and five men were sent out in two Humvees, set up much like Dr. Doolittle's mythical push-me-pull-you beast, so …
Trapped Under The Sea tells the story of the final construction on the massive Boston Harbor clean up treatment outflow pipe, a massive undertaking sending a 20+ foot diameter tunnel over 9 miles out into the ocean, under the sea floor. But before the project could be completed, 53 65 pound "plugs" had to be removed from the diffuser pipes at the very end of the tunnel.
An added complication was that, due to inter-agency squabbling and worries about cost and time, all of the support systems used to dig the tunnel, like air, light and electricity, were pulled out. So a team had to drive out in the pitch black tunnel, with a killer lack of oxygen, and pull the plugs.
After much squabbling, a barely believable plan was hatched and five men were sent out in two Humvees, set up much like Dr. Doolittle's mythical push-me-pull-you beast, so one could drive out and one could drive back. They had to bring their own breathable atmosphere, as beyond 5 miles, the air was deadly. So a plan was hatched to mix liquid gases to create breathable air and off they went.
As you can imagine, the consequences were tragic. It really is hard to imagine that no one spoke up to such a jury-rigged idea, but everyone was just happy someone was going to solve the problem and no one wanted to know too much about how. And the crew paid the price.
No one was ever charged with the negligence and the plugs were pulled using a completely different method in the end, as this method was only able to do 3 before tragedy struck.
What an amazing book. I downloaded the book from the library and, as I usually do, I started reading it a bit to see if it was interesting, with no plan to read it completely. But I was so engrossed from the start that I read 100 pages into it before I even knew what was happening and I continued to devour it, finishing it in nearly record time (for me these days anyway).
While some bits dragged, especially after the tragedy (recovery is hard and blame is tiring), it was an incisive and engrossing book. It did suffer slightly from having been adapted and expanded from two articles originally published in Boston magazine (a bit of redundancy here and there), but never too bad.
And it wasn't just about the disaster. There was plenty about the immense project that was the Boston Harbor cleanup, the amazing civil engineering that was done and the ridiculously effectiveness of it all. Swidey did a good job of explaining things as they happened and making you shake your head in amazement. Highly recommended.
