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

Trapped Under the SeaEven if you are not into diving, this book stands well on its own as a documentary piece. It is obvious that Neil Swidey extensively researched his topic and the subjects. Swidey took his time in gathering all the information necessary to allow him to tell a story which even someone with no knowledge of the industry can understand. What’s more, his dedication and attention to detail shows in the way he presents human beings to the reader. These are not protagonists and antagonists; not merely names nor characters in an anecdote, but real people with families and complicated lives just like you and me. By the time you are finished with this book, you have gone through the ordeal and seen how events like these are not just experienced and then forgotten. Events like these leave an indelible mark on the lives of those who survive, and the survivors of the victims. The next time you see a blurb in the news about an industrial fatality, if it even makes the news, you may consider just how many ramifications an event like this has on people’s lives, and just how rarely is someone truly held accountable. Even is that “someone” is a company.Even if you are not into diving, it is clear that this story would make a fascinating movie. Just read the first chapter and you will be gripping your seat wishing you could see what you are being made to picture in your mind on a giant screen.Even if you are not into diving or the construction industry, you will agree that this book also serves a higher purpose: it brings to light attitudes which are not unique to the industry. This is not an oddity, I have heard and read about plenty unnecessary tragedies. If anything, this book left me annoyed and restless.Those who needed to be held accountable may “say” they learned a lesson, but the feeling I am left with is that they did not. Most of them moved on to bigger and better things, and were left unscathed in the process. The actual “cost” for the lives lost is a blip in their checkbooks. The cost of the delay is a lot more than a blip. And the cost of doing it right when compared to the two expenses above, would have been a much wiser expense had it been done so the first time around. Yet none of us can say we have never seen companies pay more in the end because they tried to cut corners or go for the cheapest solution first. It’s a lesson few seem to learn.Swidey does an excellent job of explaining how the world of divers works. It is pretty much as he describes it. There is such a contradiction between the ego filled macho driven culture of divers (“You’re only as good as your last dive.”) and the need to be a tight knit family when the rubber meets the road and the s*** hits the fan. Sadly, I skimmed through other reviews and my eyes fell on those which rated the book poorly. Comments there dealt mostly with the “disappointment” at how the actual event is so anticlimactic. One reader seemed disappointed that there had not been more of a “complex recovery operation” involved. This is par for the course of commercial diving operations. For many, it sounds a lot more exciting than it really is. The drama, the impact, it is all internal to the diver involved in the experience, and that is why I liked this book. That is why it was so essential that Swidey show us the intimate details of the lives of the five divers and how the survivors of this tragedy face their futures in very distinct and different ways, even though they all technically shared the same experience.Reading this book took me back to when I was a diver. Every day could be a challenge. Sometimes because of my gender in this exceptionally man oriented career, but most times just because that is how the world of commercial diving operates, regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other difference you may have. It’s a tough world, and you have to prove yourself. Every day.It also took me back to my own experiences as lived from both sides of the line: as a diver and contractor, and a supervisor contracting divers. The field of vision widens as one changes position, and though most things make sense, some remain boldly wrong. Wrong like the way the big wigs claimed to be prioritizing and making risk based decisions, but in the end, the bottom line was all about what was cheaper and faster. Remember the Venn diagram with fast, cheap, and good? There is no such thing as fast, cheap, and safe. This book is a cautionary tale, or could be when read by the right people. My stomach turned well before the book got to the third part with the investigation and legalities. I could see the storm brewing when plans for the removal of the plugs were still under discussion. Why couldn’t they? As soon as the “fix it all” engineer stepped in with his plan I smelled disaster. All it took was one google entry for the liquid gas mixer and my hair stood on end. Why didn't anyone else question this? Every diver knows HP bottles used for diving come with a certificate that they are the correct grade for breathing purposes. As a supervisor, when a diving company comes we request a copy of the lab certified air quality test of breathing systems (usually compressors and volume tanks, in this case it would have been the infamous MAP Mix 9000), in exchange, if they use our HP bottles or plant air, we provide the air quality test paperwork to them. It works both ways. In this instance, neither party seemed too concerned with the gases they were being given to breathe, or with the questionable origins of the MAP Mix 9000, the special mixer they would be using in order to be able to use liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen for breathing.In the first attempt the gas mixer isn’t even present, yet they proceed to send five divers into a tunnel using their back up system. They were too low on air supply before they even made it out to the end and had to come back. At one point during their trip down the tunnel a connector on the breathing air system gets lost because it is not the locking type so they duct taped the hose in place.But I jump ahead. Without giving away too much, let me tell you that the whole planning and preparation process is fraught with errors and omissions, shortcuts and absolute ignorance of what the group of divers will be facing in order to complete the job they have been tasked with. A job they got because their company underbid other companies, the few companies who did not turn down such a crazy job for being insane, unsafe and too risky. At one point, the only people making the calls have little diving experience, and don’t seem to have mining, tunneling or other confined space experience either. OSHA even signs off on a plan which goes against their own regulations! (I’ll come back to that later).You wonder why the divers don’t push back? Oh, they do. One even refuses the job early on. But I’ve been there, and I know plenty of guys who have been there. You are encouraged, nay, rewarded at times, for not pushing back, for going along with the plans the “smart people” come up with. How do they get encouraged, you ask? They get encouraged by being the ones who get called back, or selected for the better jobs, or for more jobs. In this game, the squeaky wheel does not always get the grease. It gets replaced. And in this story, that is exactly what happens. The guy who pushes back and questions is rewarded by getting the stink eye from the “brains” of the outfit, the star or the show who no one dares question, because it is believed that he knows so much more than everyone else. This is simply an image he has created, and succeeded in making others believe. “Intellectually intimidating” is the term used to describe this man in the book. This man’s need to be admired, perhaps even worshipped for his intellect drowns all sense and renders him deaf to anyone who may actually have a sensible suggestion. It is sad to see someone whose ego is so immense, that it made him unable to accept any feedback on improvements to his plan, to such an extent that, in my opinion, it drove him to willfully endanger the lives of the divers and resulted in the deaths of two of them. The repercussions of this event had such an effect in the lives of the three survivors that it nearly ruined two of them. But somehow, this man managed to “complete the healing process”. I’m going to call him “The Brain” from now on.What infuriated me even more, is that one quick search of LinkedIn resulted in showing that this man, The Brain has continued to enjoy success and recognition in his field. A lot of people move on after a fatal or near fatal incident. There are those few who are forever changed and carry the weight of the actions which nearly cost the life of another human being. Their decisions will always be made with the conscience of one who has made mistakes in the past and does not want to repeat those mistakes. I know one such individual. After reading this book I realize he is the exception and not the rule. This man, The Brain, from what Swidey tells us, has never once even come close to acknowledging that he even made a mistake.On their second entry, using the mixer, one of the divers was having serious problems getting enough air. The Brain’s response? Switch to back up air. This again caused them to consume more air than planned and this time, The Brain told them to continue working because they had an additional emergency HP bottle they could use. You don’t need to be a diver to share my rage at this point. A diver pushed back enough for them to return. Only to be greeted by management and representatives to make it clear that they were being unsuccessful. Because time pressure is management’s solution to “fix” a problem, but not solve it.Prior to the third entry, no one has attempted to find out the cause for the air issues. The “fix” instead, is to change the settings on a box which clearly states: “MAP Mix 9000 should be opened by authorized personnel only”. The Brain takes it upon himself to make adjustments. Have I mentioned there is no in line air analyzer? The Brain has devised his own method for testing air, and even when a diver sensibly suggests and in line analyzer, The Brain refuses to change his methodology. You need to read it to believe it. Did I mention Brains practically disabled the alarms of the air monitors he provided the divers? He uses a logic which defies my logic. I must be the one who doesn’t get it. It’s why The Brain gets paid the big bucks nowadays.Granted, nine out of ten things in the plan they chose to execute were wrong. But even in all that wrongness, they were still being set up to fail. The insistence on wanting to start at the farthest possible location, in my experience, limited though it may be, seems illogical. On a never before attempted job, particularly one taking place in such an inhospitable and distant location, you work out the kinks and face the glitches while you have the most access to assistance and emergency supplies before taking off to the farthest reaches. In this case, having the divers pull a few plugs closest to the rest of the team, the vehicles, and to the primary and back up air bottles, would have served as a stage to figure things out and have the rest of the team learn as well. But not here, they sent the tallest guy to the smallest and farthest location on the first go. True to the logic I have encountered. When they had to switch divers and when they encountered problems with their breathing air, the plan to start at the farthest and narrowest point persisted. On the third entry, they continued to have air problems which caused them to have to turn around and go back. As if that was not enough, then the vehicle had problems as well. Remember, these guys are almost ten miles into a tunnel 450 feet deep, and under the ocean.Then comes the fateful day. On that day, the air problems continue. But The Brain’s solution is to tell the divers to avoid working hard at the same time so as not to overtax the breathing system. They should take turns working, he tells them. And here is where I become even more annoyed and frustrated: why are these guys having to get instructions directly from and Engineer and not their supervisor? The direct supervisor by this point had been delegated to an entirely separate trailer, and all he can do at best is overhear what The Brains is saying, and not his divers. Swidey writes that The Brain was not being forthcoming when the supervisor would ask for details. Considering the nature of the recurring problems they seem to be plagued with over the course of those days leading to the fatalities, this is shocking.In the end, the reason the day did not end with an entire team of dead divers is because the team at the end of the tunnel had one guy who reacted quickly and switched them to their emergency air. But read the book, and you will realize that this was done not a second too soon. It is quite possible that at this point in the narrative the odds were more like 90-10 that if that air had not been switched that very moment, they all would have died.No sooner have the managers received word of the tragedy than the site is crawling with police, OSHA, and all the assorted heads of the many companies involved in this fiasco. And here is where we reach the point of one of my pet peeves. When something like this happens, companies are quick to wash their hands off the mess by claiming the victim did not work “for them”. In this case this is what is written, and remember, the “unconscious” divers are dead by now, topside just hasn’t officially heard it from a medic: “The two unconscious divers worked for two separate diving companies, one from Spokane, Washington, and the other from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.”This is the way ALL parties involved will avoid responsibility for bad safety practices. The Wa company will only need to speak to one fatality, likely when they do, they will make sure to blame the project, and the other companies contracted. The NH company will claim it was working under the direction of another company, and were subcontracted. The company who subcontracted will claim the fatality was NOT theirs. Do you see where I am going with this? Recently I got into a discussion about this after being interviewed for an article relating to a fatality in a salvage project. The main company subcontracted the diving services from another company, as they customarily do, and as they seem to have accidents and fatalities more frequently than most. But as this book will clearly show, the subcontracted company often has no say whatsoever in how the dive is planned, and their supervisors will more often than not just be there symbolically. Though the intent of my review is partly to engender some conversation and thought, and mostly to tell you what a fantastic book this is and how hard Swidey worked to make this book a very accurate reflection of the industry, I am not absolving these small companies from blame. When a subcontracted company is faced with any plan which seems unsafe, they should push back. I understand they often don’t because they don’t want to lose the contract. It always boils down to money. Money was the reason the job was accepted from the top down to the divers. Those who accepted because they stood to make money, and those who pushed this through because they thought they were saving money.In the end, I leave you with these thoughts from the investigating officer who was assigned to the accident, and the NAVY specialist who came to investigate their breathing air set up respectively:“All the millions that they poured into this project, and this is what these divers were given to keep them alive?” as she looked at a manifold on plywood with valves labeled with pieces of tape. The hose connecting the face mask to the bailout bottle also wouldn’t lock into place for a couple of the divers, they were told to duct tape it.“They cared more about the Humvee than they did about the divers” From the observation of the breathing air set up and the oxygen injection system set up to allow the vehicles to start in the oxygen deficient tunnel. Yes, the tunnel had about 6% oxygen or less.And the last comment as to why more often than not, no one is held accountable and prosecuted in events like these:Prosecutors in the DA’s office “felt that because the divers had survived despite all the problems on Monday and Tuesday, it was reasonable for [The Brain] to expect the same result when he sent them back on Wednesday.”REASONABLE?!?Please read this book.*I mentioned I'd come back to that. OSHA agreed to the plan to send the divers into the tunnel, yet later issued fines of over 400K claiming the plan violated OSHA regulations. But they agreed to the plan, the plan which violated their very regulations.

This was an interesting read and turned out to be something a little different than what I'd expected. My expectation was a book about a harrowing mission gone bad and the rescue of the workers in the tunnel. Well, of course it was that, but that part of the story was the smallest part of the book. Swidey spent most of his narrative laying the back story and aftermath out in detail. And that's what made the book interesting. The construction efforts and story of the tunnel, the divers and project managers, etc. were/are all interesting characters, and how the events of the failed assignment affected all of them. Turned out to be a very compelling story, and tragic in terms of how the people's lives were impacted by what happened in the tunnel. All in all this was a very readable and interesting story, mostly about people's lives before and after the tragedy, and well worth the read.

As an engineer and recreational diver I love the technical detail this book provides, keeping me engaged while delivering all the human aspects of a tragic story. It's rare to find an author who can deliver technical detail, accurately, while retaining the rich and colorful human elements. Often an author will fudge detail or dumb-down the technical side and focus exclusively on the people, places, and events -- causing me to lose interest.The first half of the book leads you through the project, the problem, the solution, the accident, and the investigation, and the novel solution that could have obviated the need for such a dangerous diver mission in the first place. The next 20% of the book describes the legal battles that followed, the attempts at criminal prosecution and the assignment of liability amongst the various players. The next 20%, or so, follows the three surviving divers and their years of difficulties coping with horrors, guilt, and nightmares of that terrible mission, trying to adjust to normal life after being unable to rescue their two comrades and nearly dying themselves. A substantial section at the end of the book provides reference and source notes for this thoroughly well documented, but compelling story.Only negative: wish there were more diagrams, maps, and photos. The (Kindle) book has only a couple of diagrams. The author tells the story well, but my thirst for technical detail wasn't completely satisfied by the otherwise excellent writing.

It was August 2009 when I first read Neil Swidey's story about the men who faced disaster deep under the ocean at the end of a 10-mile long tunnel. It was a deeply fascinating two-part story that left me wanting to know more. Perhaps like other readers of that Boston Globe Magazine story, I was highly curious about the actual circumstances that led this large engineering project to this final conundrum of how to pull out the safety plugs at the end of the tunnel. I was also very curious about the blue-collar men who did this job.Fast forward to March 2014, and my curiosity has now been satisfied. Neil Swidey's book is a very satisfying and thorough account about this terrible tragedy, from its origins to its aftermath. I felt that Neil left no stone unturned, and readers who get to the epilogue of this book I'm sure will agree. His book approaches the story from every perspective. His portrayal of the management, the workers, the lawyers, and investigators felt very balanced. With a sure narrative voice, but an authoritative reporter's language, this book reminds me of "A Civil Action" (Jonathan Harr) and "The Perfect Storm" (Sebastian Junger).After reading this book, I felt more appreciation for all the union blue-collar workers who build the infrastructure that we all rely on. The risks that they take on so casually is due to everyone's heightened sense of safety, but the pressures of politics, time, and budget can lead to worker injury and even death. When I see those workers in hard-hats on the highway, or read about some bridge or tunnel closure, I now think about Neil's book. He completely honors their work, and it is a book worth reading.

I bought this book because a friend recommended it and my daughter lives in Boston. I am always interested in the history of that city because it has so much and it is all so interesting.I learned so much about what hard-hat divers do and the comradeship among them and the perils they face. It is a story of bravery,grave mishaps and above all, what happens when people fail to communicate the truth, sometimes because it is to the disadvantage of their careers and sometimes because they made mistakes they don't want to own up to. It is the history of the clean-up of Boston Harbor, the most polluted one is the U.S. in the1980's. It shows what happens when government and private enterprise try to work together on a very important project. It can be very sad and very infuriating. I recommend it highly.

Being from Boston, I found the description of the outflow tunnel disaster very interesting. Although an adult at the time, I was only vaguely aware of the incident when it occurred because the media did not really go after it. This was due in part to the huge amount of attention given to the death of John F. Kennedy Jr, which occurred at about the same time. I was attracted to the story because I'm a Bostonian, but I was particularly intrigued by the incredible scope of the engineering project which created a tunnel 10 miles long that reaches out under the seabed to Massachusetts Bay. Mr Swidey does a great job of explaining the project, and then the organizational and planning failures that resulted in the tragedies. He gives it a human face by doing deep background on the individuals who were involved. It's a very good book.

I enjoyed the main story about the dangers of being under the sea, walking and working so far from safety; I was saddened by what happened to some and wondered how they could put themselves in such conditions. However, I was consistently distracted by the authors diversions into lengthy descriptions and background writing about every player, bit player or government official, member of law enforcement, lawyer, adnausem. The author went 'out of bounds' many times is this manner, diverting from the main theme.He needed a more strict editor to condense the endless diversionary stories, which detracted from the main theme.

I stumbled upon this book after researching the Deer Island treatment plant, as I have a fascination with all things engineering and infrastructure. The engineering feat of the outfall was impressive and when I learned that 2 divers died inside a dry tunnel, I needed more answers. Naturally it led me to this book and I couldn't put it down. I often look at structures we use everyday; that people may have lost their lives building. I think of how tragic it is that their sacrifice often goes unnoticed, while we just drive over a bridge to get to work. This book pays respect to all of those people. I think Neil did a great job of capturing the personalities of the people in the story and you feel a personal connection with them. And let's not forget thedepictions of the fascinating engineering that needed to take place to foster this disaster. It's a fantastic book, it should be a must read for anyone in engineering, construction diving, project management etc.

Seriously. This book is so scary, the way it’s written brings you right in with the workers and the terrifying experience they lived through. I love to torture myself as a thalassophobic (is that a word?) and this had me sweating at parts, but I still couldn’t put it down.

A story of the tunnel built under Boston Harbour to alleviate the sewage in the harbour itself and pump it 10 miles out to sea. It’s an amazing tale of engineering and an insight into some of the work involved in the development of this idea. The story is not too technical and moves along well as it delves into the lives of the 5 men trapped at the end of a 10 mile tunnel….well not really trapped since they were able to extradite themselves from the tunnel, but 2 men died in the process. The story makes an interesting read.

I enjoyed the book overall. However, I found parts of it too techcical. The book highlighted a phenominal engineering feat. The safety standards of the day were grossly inadequate.

Competently researched and written, but that's all.