The Dive: The untold story of the world’s deepest submarine rescue

I bought this book because I rather like a disaster story - especially when it's true. I won't say anything about the ending in case you don't know what happened. When I started reading it, it quickly became apparent that this book wasn't just about the disaster story. That story was set against the history of the development of submarines and mini-submersibles, something about which I knew nothing. So I got a history lesson thrown in for free. Very engagingly written, an interesting story and with the history as well, this is a great read which I recommend.

A brilliantly detailed description of a record rescue of two submariners trapped with diminishing life support 1700 feet below the storm tossed Atlantic and of the interesting history of submarines. Well researched and well told..One can only admire the quiet, controlled courage of the two men as the minutes ticked by as did their chances of survival.As for the rescue itself, the world of submariners pulled together in an international effort to save them. This could have been achieved much sooner if the two sister subs and auxiliary equipment did not suffer catastrophic failures. In spite of this it was a successful operation with possibly just minutes to spare.A perfect yarn of a not so perfect operation.

Interesting story about a real life rescue and using true characters, good read

This is the real life story of the attempt to rescue of 2 men trapped 1200 ft below the sea in a mini-submarine in the early 1960s. Great for lovers of technology history. Amazing numbers of mistakes & foul-up threatened to lose their lives.

i remember this happening. it fascinated me as a kid. i've met both rogers. it was a privilege.

This is a good read, but marred by a number of issues. Firstly, the sub-title of the book, ie. "The untold story of the world's deepest submarine rescue". The story has already been told in Roger Chapman's "No Time On Our Side" published in 1975. This book is mentioned several times in McGinty's book, and also listed in the Sources, so why the misleading sub-title?The photos are printed on the same matt paper as the script, so are poor.A diagram is provided of Pisces III, but it fails to identify the rear hatch, which is critical to the story.A diagram of the hook designed to effect the rescue would have been useful.The book goes off on a couple of lengthy tangents to discusss the development of submarines and telecomms cables across the Atlantic. Neither are necessary, and presumably included to pad out the book.Like most people who are not divers, McGinty gets terribly confused between air and oxygen. Two examples will suffice, although there are many more. On page 71 there is mention of a hard-hat diver's oxygen line, and on page 113 we have air escaping from an oxygen cylinder.McGinty gets some facts wrong on page 57 about the 18 century submersible called Turtle. He states that it was designed to pack a hole in the target warship with explosives, when in fact the method was to drill an augur into the hull, to which was attached the explosives barrel by a short length of rope. He also states that the Turtle was constructed of two hemispheres of hollowed out oak, when every account I have read, and every diagram I have seen, shows the construction to be similar to that used in barrel making.

A great read

This is an absolute brilliant read!!!its riveting, nail biting, just superb

Excellent book… great delivery, Great seller, no issues.

This book was released two years before the Titan submersible accident. It was the recent incident, however, that drew me to this book. Unlike the Titan accident, which was lost probably at the same time they lost communication with the surface, this submersible, the Pisces III, was resting on the seabed, some 1575 below the mother ship.The world did not know the fate of the five people aboard the Titan for several days. I envisioned them sitting on the bottom next to the Titanic with no hope of rescue. There have been plenty of submarine accidents in which that very scenario has occurred – trapped men who find themselves in a situation where rescue just isn't possible. That was the case of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk. In this case, the men inside the Pisces III submersible did have a possibility of rescue, but it was a small one.If the rescue had gone exactly as planned, then there wouldn't have been much of a story to tell. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, nothing about this rescue was easy. There was a time constraint. This was due to three life support systems that had a limited time of usefulness: oxygen, power, and a carbon dioxide scrubber. Deplete any one of those three and the two men inside the submersible would not survive.The author provides just enough background information to set up the incident. Once the accident happens, it becomes a ticking bomb story. Since this was a small two-man submersible, the rescue could be accomplished by attaching a long enough rope to the sub and then winching it to the surface. But in order to do that, you had to have another submersible first locate the accident sub, and then attach the rope to the vehicle. All of those tasks proved to be extremely difficult under the weather conditions and time constraints they had to work with. There were a lot of similarities to the Apollo 13 story.The author expertly weaves the narrative by switching from the trapped men to the rescuers and back again. Just like Apollo 13, you know how the story is going to end, but that doesn't make it any less compelling.

I really enjoyed this book. It is extremely well written, covering a lot of ground and technical info in a clear manner. I have a special interest in the subject matter, having worked as a commercial oil field diver back in the 70's. Bad things can happen in deep, dark waters and this story is fortunately one with a happy ending. The participants in this rescue have much to be proud of and it is amazing what they carried off in such a short period of time; having started diving myself in the 60's, I would not have thought it possible back in those days.

Good story. Exciting. Seems remarkable the number of mistakes the rescuers made. But it must have been a crazy stressful time. Early days of the submersibles.

This new book arrived on time and was as advertised. Right from the start, this is a great read!