by Alessandra Ressa
British cave diver Rick Stanton was in Trieste to receive the Golden Trident award during the 11th edition of Mare Nordest, the three-day event in Piazza Unità entirely dedicated to the sea with the support of the International Academy of Underwater Sciences and Techniques.
The retired fireman made the news in 2018 after he coordinated and participated in the rescue of 12 children and their coach who had been trapped in a flooded cave in Chiang Ray, Thailand. Stanton is one of the few distinguished divers to receive the special award. Among other recipients of the prestigious recognition are Jacques Cousteau, Folco Quilici and Jacques Piccard.
The 12 children and their coach, all members of a football team, had been trapped deep into a chamber for 15 days almost 3 kilometers away from the entrance by heavy rains which flooded the cave of Tham Luang. Against all odds, Stanton and his team managed to rescue them one by one. The incredible story is told in the suspenseful movie, Thirteen lives by director Ron Howard, currently available on Amazon Prime Video.
According to Stanton, the gripping sequence of events told in the film is true to the original. He also doesn’t hide some pride in having had his part played by handsome Viggo Mortensen. Other interpreters are Colin Farrel and Joel Edgerton. The National Geographic has recently produced the documentary The rescue, where the story is told with real footage and interviews with the people involved on the front line. A Thai TV series based on the story, Thai cave rescue, is about to be released on Netflix.
Rick Stanton is a modern hero whose fame doesn’t get into his head. The brave cave diver talks about the dramatic escalation of events and the unimaginable outcome without particular emotions or narrative emphasis.
“I’m a cave diver and I volunteer in rescuing people, this is what I do.”
In Trieste for the first time, I met Stanton in Piazza Unità where he was the guest of honor at Mare Nordest. The sudden change of weather, rain and Bora wind gave him a taste of the city’s unpredictable personality, and unpredictability is probably what this extremely balanced man can handle best. Even at traditional Caffè degli Specchi, he did not go for one of the fancy and complicated Triestino coffees, but preferred an ever reliable Americano.
How did the experience in Thailand change your life?
Well, I was having a great retirement in Coventry until these kids came along…. I must confess that I’ve never liked children. I did not feel emotionally involved, but once we were able to reach them and discover that they were still alive after ten days – you see, we were all pretty sure we were going to recover bodies – then I felt a moral responsibility towards them. We had to find a way to get them out. At that time, with the water rising by the minute and the oxygen level in the chamber where they were trapped dropping dramatically, all solutions seemed impossible. But we had to come up with a plan, and when we did, I honestly did not believe it could work. I was sure some of the children would die. You see, it was the first time something like that had been suggested, no one had ever tried it before. The plan was that children would be tied up with ropes, sedated and carried underwater for hours like packages through narrow water-flooded tunnels with strong currents and no visibility. Divers were equipped with syringes to inject more anesthetic during the crossing so that the children would not wake up in the middle of the operations, panic and drown. There were so many things that could have gone wrong. But we had to try, there were no alternatives but to let them die in the chamber where they had been trapped. To keep our mental balance, we had to think of these children as packages, and only that way, as packages, were able to carry them out one by one. Having a child in my arms in a situation of life and death did something to me. The relief was enormous when I reemerged with the boy I carried and he was alive. But don’t get me wrong. I don’t like children any better today.
Cave diving is considered one of the most dangerous activities. When and why did you become interested in it?
I was 18-years old and my mother called me. There was a Jacques Cousteau documentary on TV, it was about cave diving. There and then I realized that I wanted to do it. I wanted to be an underwater cave explorer, like Cousteau. I was a good swimmer, but it was the opportunity to explore that was appealing to me. I didn’t attend any diving courses, I am a self taught diver and eventually leveled up to the point where I now develop my own diving gear. I think that if you are taught something in a course, you are inevitably given boundaries, and that was exactly what I wanted to avoid. It is true, it can be a dangerous activity, but I think that just because something is dangerous it doesn’t mean you have to do it dangerously.
Have you ever found yourself in real danger? What are the worst things that can happen when diving in a cave?
Most of the times accidents happen because of human error. For example, if there is no visibility, strong currents and you lose the line (that is the rope along the passages) you may get disoriented. Sometimes the equipment was not checked properly. Panic is something you want to avoid entirely in this activity, you need to know how to control it. I once got lost in a very deep cave in France and I could not find my way out. I began studying the features of the cave. Having explored many, you will find that they do tend to follow a certain pattern. The features of the cave eventually helped me find the right way out. I must say that I have and have always had complete self control. I am able to be calm and think rationally at any time. I’ve always been like that, since I can remember. This also came in very handy when I was a firefighter in Coventry. Cave diving is first of all a ‘thinking’ activity.
You have participated in many rescues and are considered to be one of the most experienced cave divers in the world. In Thailand, success was the result of great teamwork and divers from all over the world joined in the challenge. How did you manage to get along?
As I often tell journalists who use too freely the word “miracle” when referring to the group rescue in Thailand, rescuing people from caves, possibly alive although it has not always been the case for me, is the result of hard work, planning, competence, experience and teamwork. Miracles play no part in this. When you are challenged with a difficult rescue, you have to put your trust in people you normally don’t like or wouldn’t hang out with. This in turn creates strong lifetime bonds. I think the same dynamics applied to the kids trapped in the cave. They were not only friends but a team, there was a special bond among them. This bond played a great role in keeping faith and supporting each other.
You have become a very popular public figure and are now traveling to movie premieres, cave diving events, you have received a long list of awards and are constantly asked to speak publicly. Yet you managed to find the time to write a book, Aquanaut, A life beneath the surface, available in English but that will soon be translated into Italian. Why should we read it?
In my book I not only give the most complete account of the cave rescue in Thailand, but I explore the complex emotions I have had regarding diving. I asked myself, why on Earth was a 57 years old man from England flown into Thailand? Evidently, my colleagues and I were the most experienced cave divers in the world. All the diving we had previously done was all meant for this one huge challenge. Needless to say, the rescue was the turning point of my career and not only were we able to save lives, but we created a unique and innovative team of experts. In the book I tell about how I reached that turning point and how teamwork played a fundamental role in it.
What do you like about Trieste? Did you know this city is considered the cradle of speleology? Would you be interested in exploring its depths?
I am pleasantly surprised about Trieste as I had never been here before. I love its architecture and definitely its seafood. I know that Trieste offers great opportunities for cave explorers like me, and I am familiar with the underwater mysteries related to its underground river Timavo. I would love to dive and explore its depths and may come back to do so in near future.
