Trapped Under the Sea: One Engineering Marvel, Five Men, and a Disaster Ten Miles Into the Darkness

[gilda_elise]

Trapped Under the Sea: One Engineering Marvel, Five Men, and a Disaster Ten Miles Into the Darkness by Neil Swidey


"The harrowing story of five men who were sent into a dark, airless tunnel hundreds of feet under Massachusetts Bay to do a nearly impossible job-with deadly results.

In the 1990s, Boston built a sophisticated waste treatment plant on Deer Island that was poised to show the country how to deal with environmental catastrophe. The city had been dumping barely treated sewage into its harbor, coating the seafloor with a layer of "black mayonnaise." Fisheries collapsed, wildlife fled, and locals referred to floating tampon applicators as "beach whistles." But before the plant could start operating, a team of divers had to make a perilous journey to the end of a 10-mile tunnel-devoid of light and air-to complete the construction. Five went in; two never came out. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents, award-winning reporter Neil Swidey re-creates the tragedy and its aftermath in an action-packed narrative. Trapped Under the Sea reminds us that behind every bridge, highway, dam, and tunnel-behind the infrastructure that makes modern life possible-lies unsung bravery and extraordinary sacrifice."

The beginning of the book jumps back and forth between how the job is being set up, the concerns of the divers, the machinations of its foreman, and the lives of the divers. This part does tend to bog down from time to time, which, I suppose is do be expected. The divers' lives aren't always exciting, or even note worthy, but, slowly, you come to know them as people. By the time they head off down the tunnel, you're hoping they all return, even when you know they won't.

The actual journey, and its aftermath, is riveting reading. But, the world being what it is, the ending is one you can see coming. Like the Deepwater Horizon that would come years later, (with a disturbing connection to the Boston treatment plant,) the companies, as well as the foreman who was mostly responsible, get off with little more than a slap on the hands. It would be the divers who would end up paying the most. Not with money, but with lives that would never be the same.

Comments

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a fascinating account of things people rarely think about. A friend's father worked on the construction of the Hoover Dam and he had a story of seeing one worker fall into the concrete as it was being poured. *shudder*

My brother works for the water company, and early on part of his job was climbing in the crawlspaces underneath reservoirs. He carried a mechanical "canary" which would warn if the air was bad. Job duties most people have no idea exist.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Or would take on. I think it takes a certain kind of person to do a job that is inherently dangerous. We tend to the forget the "heroes" that live among us, unsung.

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

We do indeed forget about those heroes... We remember police and firefighters, but there are so many others who aren't even on our radar. I remember when my brother first told me about the reservoir duty - I freaked out a bit. Of course this is also the guy who wanted to become a storm chaser when he worked for the National Weather Service. But that never happened. Fortunately.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

A storm chaser? Wow, that would be intense.

But even something as mundane as being a lineman can carry its own dangers. A friend of ours was killed when slicing a cable together in a pit. When he started to shrink wrap the cover, there was an explosion and the pit filled with fire. It turned out that there was a gas leak further down the line and the gas had followed the pipes.

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry about your friend. Yes, anything to do with electricity carries potentially fatal hazards - something people don't think about.

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a fascinating read, and on an event I had no idea even happened. But the aftermath does sound depressingly predictable, yes.

Thanks for the heads-up. I have no idea whether it is likely to be available here, but if I see it, I may well have to have a look.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard of the event, either. But I suppose most foul-ups like this one are kept as quiet as possible. And, yes, though I wondered from the start, I was pretty certain the divers would get a raw deal and those thatwho caused the accident wouldn't end up paying.

I imagine it will take a few months to get over there. I've found that the reverse is usually true. If it does, I think you'll enjoy it.