AQUANAUT

A British cave diver reflects on his career and his participation in a well-known death-defying rescue mission.

When Stanton, who was admittedly apathetic as a youth, watched his first cave-diving documentary at 17, he knew he had found his purpose. He arrived at college the following year and immediately joined both the caving and diving clubs. His love of underground exploration consumed him enough that he dropped out of school and became a firefighter to support his spelunking habit. For the next 38 years, his adventures took him to Britain, Western Europe, and Mexico, where he helped map out underground terrain, boldly experimented with caving equipment, and, on occasion, assisted in the recovery of bodies. Then, in the summer of 2018, a friend told him about a group of teenage Thai football players who had become stranded inside a cave after monsoon rains blocked the exit. Stanton flew to Thailand to assist in the removal of what he believed would be their remains from the cave. Even after he discovered the boys were all alive, he confronted obstacles at every turn: on-again, off-again rains that threatened to flood the caves even more; clumsy and dangerous rescue attempts by unskilled Navy SEALS; and a lack of proper equipment to save the boys. Using an unorthodox recovery method, Stanton led a successful rescue mission that earned him worldwide acclaim. The tale of the author’s exploits is undeniably exciting, but the text, co-written by Dealy, is weighed down by pedestrian details that slow the narrative pace. This problem is further exacerbated by the way he braids chapters pertaining to the rescue with those pertaining to highlights from his long career in cave diving. The result is an excessively detailed book most likely to appeal only to those who share Stanton’s subterranean passions.

A fun adventure story marred by flawed storytelling.