TRAPPED UNDER THE SEA: ONE ENGINEERING MARVEL, FIVE MEN, AND A DISASTER TEN MILES INTO THE DARKNESS

NY: Crown Publishers, 2014. First Edition, first printing. Signed presentation from Swidey on the title page: "To Monty, C.E.s plan a better world for all of us. Remember the ordinary heroes. All the best, Neil Swidey. June, 2014." The story of five men who were sent into a dark, airless, miles-long tunnel, hundreds of feet below the ocean, to do a nearly impossible job with deadly results A quarter-century ago, Boston had the dirtiest harbor in America. The city had been dumping sewage into it for generations, coating the seafloor with a layer of black mayonnaise. Fisheries collapsed, wildlife fled, and locals referred to floating tampon applicators as beach whistles. In the 1990s, work began on a state-of-the-art treatment plant and a 10-mile-long tunnel with its endpoint stretching farther from civilization than the earths deepest ocean trench to carry waste out of the harbor. With this impressive feat of engineering, Boston was poised to show the country how to rebound from environmental ruin. But when bad decisions and clashing corporations endangered the project, a team of commercial divers was sent on a perilous mission to rescue the stymied cleanup effort. Five divers went in; not all of them came out alive. Tall 8vo., yellow boards in dust jacket; 418 pages. Near fine (covers very nice; contents clean & tight); very nice d/j.