Aquanaut
Rick STANTON
Michael Joseph/Pengiun, London. 2021. vi+434, 13 line drawings and b&w photographs. Hardback, 160mm × 240mm. £20
ISBN 978-0-241-42126-0
‘A CASE study in courage’ (Ron Howard, film director). ‘Rick Stanton is not the most domesticated of men’ (Sunday Telegraph). Such sample quotations are provided by the publisher on the back of Aquanaut beneath a heading: ‘The rescue watched by the world’, while the front is emblazoned with ‘The inside story of the Thai cave rescue’.Few readers of Descent can have heard nothing of the incredible rescue of children trapped in the flooded Tham Luang in Thailand in 2018 and it may be that the many media reports engender a feeling that all is known. If so, that is very far from the truth. Rick Stanton was one of the two divers who first located the children and was instrumental in forming the plan that eventually extracted them alive, almost against expectations. Yet Aquanaut, written with the aid of Rick’s friend Karen Dealy, goes far beyond coverage of the rescue. Rather, this is Rick’s autobiography, as indicated by the subtitle: ‘A life beneath the surface’.
The rescue might, therefore, be a selling point, but Aquanaut goes far deeper (to pardon the unintentional pun) and this makes it incredibly interesting. And readable – if this was a novel in the best traditions of thriller or adventure fiction, it would stand up. That it tells the true story of how Rick gained his skills and how he approaches life, makes it a powerful tale. It is a rare book that can be both spellbinding and appeal to cavers as much as non-cavers – or perhaps, even more to cavers who will more readily comprehend the challenges being faced.
Cavers will certainly understand the sometimes black humour that is revealed by the very honest writing. Where Rick respects others’ abilities, he says so, and the converse, and yet he
does so in a simple fashion, with humility, and this also shines through. To read Aquanaut is to feel the emotions that are present at the time, let alone what it makes a reader feel. Here is someone who you feel has done so much, both in exploration and in the many rescues (and body recoveries) he has been involved with, and is now sharing something of his approach to life.
Read Aquanaut and you will discover the details not only of the rescue from Tham Luang, but also of others such as the 2004 extraction of British Army cavers from a Mexican cave. In such instances, a requirement for diplomacy is added to cave diving skills and, again, it is fascinating how the stories play out. That applies even to the notes at the end of the book, some of which it feels could have been more readily incorporated into the main body but nevertheless, demand reading. If nothing else, you will discover yet more pathos in the detail alongside humour such as discovering in the final words where Rick’s face appears as a tribute.
This is an extraordinary piece of writing, all the more so for the intricacy with which the story of the rescue is intertwined with Rick’s passage through the years of learning to
cave, then cave dive; of his reactions to his parents’ deaths; of his ethos of not being side-tracked into anything that is not deemed important to him. Just so, the description of his legendary house – why would he want more?
The textual blend of transferring between his formative years and the Tham Luang rescue must have taken much planning and forethought, in the end becoming seamless. Emotively, what you the reader realise about the text when you finish the book might be summed up in one word: honesty. Rick’s is an honest story, honestly told without embellishment; this isn’t a ‘warts and all’ tale, but a very touchingly honest one.
At one point a nod is given to the problems of communication with mention of Douglas Adams’ fictional babel fish; let us quote him further: Resistance is Useless if you think that, once begun, you can put Aquanaut down. This is one of the best caving books you might ever hope to read.
Chris Howes
Originally published in Descent (281), August 2021