Thirteen Lives

[Marie13]

I have found an interesting article about Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, providing some infos on their rebreathers:

Thailand Cave Rescue. How did British cave divers succeed where navy seals could not? - Yay.Fish

Thailand Cave Rescue. How did British cave divers gain the skills needed to rescue 12 boys and their coach from a flooded cave when navy seals could not?

www.yay.fish

It is not clear if and how much these units were employed during the rescue in Thailand.
Here the Stanton's home-made rebreather:

And here the modified Castoro ARO unit employed by John Volanthen:

Both units are modified for being able to operate with "mixtures", instead of the basic pure oxygen.
I was expecting to see them in the film, instead I did see almost uniquely standard alu tanks of small size (probably AL80).

Have you read Stanton’s Aquanaut book? Strongly recommend you do. No rebreathers were used. Open circuit sidemount only.

 

[emoreira]

just watched it, not as good as I had hoped, did not really capture an emotional narrative or make you feel vested in the people. I thought The Rescue was better, did all of that. Also noticed that in 13 Lives they showed it all as SM diving (or correctly single tank diving by Thai Seals), did not show rebreather use at all, which at least Rick used during some of the real events, a home made one if I recall correctly. The movie portrayed the Thai Seals as protective of turf and more confident in their abilities then I have the impression they were in real life, i think they were more humble about not having the needed experience, equipment, and training for caves.

I agree 100 % with your view. I also like more "The rescue" than this movie.

 

[Wibble]

Listen to the various interviews of the rescuers that have been done over the years. Richard Harris' interview on the Speaking Sidemount podcast is very interesting and gives a lot of background information.

The books are good too. Personally I really like Rick Stanton's Aquanaut. A great guy who doesn’t crave the limelight.

 

[Flgrizzy]

I thought it was great and I had NO IDEA that the rescue involved shots and zip ties for each of the kids and their Coach ! ……WOW !

 

[Wibble]

I thought it was great and I had NO IDEA that the rescue involved shots and zip ties for each of the kids and their Coach ! ……WOW !

The choices were either leave them in the cave system for 5 months to wait for the water to abate whilst they slowly die of infections, trench foot and a host of other nasties in utterly insanitary condtions. Or anaesthetise them and dive them out before the system floods within days.

A staggering achievement that all 13 were saved -- and no others died in the attempt except Sulman

 

[dflaher]

I'm about a third of the way through Aquanaut. Once done I will breakdown and get Disney+ for a month for The Rescue. Been waiting for another reason for which to subscribe besides for Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary Get Back .

 

[Marie13]

I'm about a third of the way through Aquanaut. Once done I will breakdown and get Disney+ for a month for The Rescue. Been waiting for another reason for which to subscribe besides for Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary Get Back .

There’s tons of great NatGeo stuff, too.

 

[Flgrizzy]

The choices were either leave them in the cave system for 5 months to wait for the water to abate whilst they slowly die of infections, trench foot and a host of other nasties in utterly insanitary condtions. Or anaesthetise them and dive them out before the system floods within days.

A staggering achievement that all 13 were saved -- and no others died in the attempt except Sulman

Yeah… I REALLY enjoyed the movie !

 

[ScubaGypsy]

13 Lives is good but I too prefered The Rescue as well.

 

[Guille G]

I actually enjoyed this one a bit more than The Rescue,m. My non-diver wife got bored with that one and quit half way but really liked 13 lives, so that probably biased me a bit.

I liked how there were a lot of tiny details, like their knuckles and fingers bloody after the dives. Reminded me of my own scratched hands after a few days of practicing 0-viz exits in cave class, leaving a bit of knuckle skin at every tie off.