On the 23^rd June 2018 twelve members of the Thai Wild Boars youth football team, and their coach, strolled into the Tham Luang Cave in northern Thailand. Hours later they were trapped, over a mile inside the cave, by monsoon-driven, rising flood water. Initial attempts to find the lost group were thwarted by the torrent of water rushing through the cave system. After ten days without contact, food and warm clothing, it was feared the group were dead from hypothermia or drowning.

Two experienced British cave rescue divers, Rick Stanton and John Volanthen volunteered to swim against the current, through over a mile of pitch black, flooded tunnels, negotiate sumps and slither through crevices in an attempt to discover if they were alive or dead. They found them alive on a raised sand bank, over one and half miles into the cave system; thus started ‘one of the largest cave search and rescue operations in history.’ (p.93). However, their rescue was perilous. Josh Morris, the intermediary between the rescuers and the Thai political and military decision makers, announced: ‘You have two terrible choices… In one, everyone is going to die. And in the other, some people are going to die.’ (p188).

Twenty-five days later the boys and their coach emerged, cocooned on special stretchers. They were bound, sedated, in wet suits and breathing via positive pressure face masks. If, at any time, during the tortuous journey, in pitch blackness, the face masks had been dislodged the boy would drown.

We may recall that all thirteen of those trapped were rescued alive, but a Thai Navy SEAL drowned. However, this does not detract from the story of the rescue told and illustrated by Matt Gutman. He manages to capture the race against time drama, as the strength of the boys, and oxygen levels in the cave, fall to dangerous levels. Gutman describes the tension as water levels continue to rise and more monsoon rains approach. He also describes the toll on the rescue divers as cuts and scratches, grazes and blisters become infected and sheer exhaustion starts to overtake them. The story is enhanced by maps of the cave system and the 49 colour photographs; they convey the enormity of the rescue.

A noteworthy feature of The Boys in the Cave is that Matt Gutman does not shy away from describing the bizarre and chaotic attempts at rescue by well meaning people who didn’t know what they were doing. He records the politically driven, bureaucratic public announcements that were at odds with reality. He also acknowledges the rivalries, antagonism and emotional involvement of those present. It was a testing time for all – especially when failure was the most likely outcome.

You do not have to be a diver, let alone a cave diver, to appreciate the challenges that the volunteer rescue divers undertook. Exhausting eight to ten hour swims, in pitch darkness, through a tangled web of lines and tubes, ropes and electrical cable that are waiting to snag you. It was a booby-trapped labyrinth in which you could becoming jammed in a choke point, lose the line and get lost, running out of air or be caught up in a flash flood. It was a heroic endeavour and one I’m sure you will enjoy reading.

• The Boys in the Cave: Deep inside the impossible rescue in Thailand (2018)
• By Matt Guttman
• ISBN 978 006 29099 23
• 307 Pages

About Matt Gutman

Matt Gutman was part of the international news team that reported on the rescue. He was born in Princeton, New Jersey, USA on 5^th December 1977 and graduated from Williams College in 2000. As a reporter he has worked for the Jerusalem Post, USA Today and ABC News Radio. He is currently the Chief National Correspondent for ABC News in America. The Boys in the Cave is his first book.

Find out more about Professor Fred Lockwood, who is also a published author, at www.fredlockwood.co.uk.