Item — HN Reader

There is a couple of other stories that comes to mind, unfortunately both of them were about recovering the dead.

"Raising the Dead" is about the accidental discovery of a diver in SA, and the recovery efforts there. [1]

"The cave divers who went back for their friends" is about a trio of finns who went back into a Norwegian underwater cave system to recover two friends who got stuck and died there. [2]

[1] - https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/water-activi...

[2] - https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36097300

3 comments

This one is more a story of dumb luck, but there was a case of a crew member surviving for 2.5 days in an air pocket in his sunken ship:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-25205914

He was discovered by divers hired to investigate the sinking and recover the bodies.

Every time I watch that I get so emotional. Imagine being in his shoes. Stuck underwater for days, knowing that you are most likely going to die there. Then just by dumb luck you are rescued. The relief this man must have felt.

That video is classic. My favorite part is when the diver sees the man and “mission control” thinks the diver is panicking from seeing a corpse and tries to get him to calm down, then the swearing while they’re trying to figure out what to do.

How about "What is your rank?" "I'm the cook" "You're the cook?" "Yes sir" "They always survive..."

I just want to re-iterate that these are some of the same divers involved with the thai cave rescue in TFA

4 friends of friends died in a flooded cave in my home town.

https://www.deseret.com/2005/8/23/19908025/4-drown-in-cave#8

I had been hearing about the cave, and had been invited to go there a couple of weeks before this happened. I decided not to go because it didn't sound safe. I was concerned about the oxygen content of the air pocket and decided it was too dangerous.

Smart person. You have the risk/reward thing figured out.

There is a great documentary about the Finnish cave divers. "Diving into the unknown": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving_into_the_Unknown

"Last breath" is also a really good documentary about rescue under water https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Breath_(2019_film)

Both of these I rate 5/5

I'm just going to toss this here because I really enjoyed the audiobook:

Shadow Divers - The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Divers

This book is absolutely incredible. I just read it recently. I didn’t expect to like it that much (the description doesn’t sound that interesting), but Kurson is such an excellent author that he totally hooked me. Highly recommended.