33 Men Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Miners

by Franklin, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9780399157776
• ISBN10: 0399157778
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-02-14
• Publisher: Putnam Adult

Summary

33 Men: Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Minersis the riveting and authoritative account of the 2010 San Jos#xE9; mine rescue in Chile-after one of the longest human entrapments in history. With his coveted "Rescue Pass," Franklin was permitted access far past the police perimeter. It would be seventeen long days before the miners were discovered alive and the world press descended. It would be another fifty-two days before the miners were all successfully rescued. For eight weeks, Franklin conducted interviews with families, rescue workers, the mine psychologist, drill operators, scientists, and the architects of the rescue operation. He reported from an improvised office on the mountainside that was the nerve center of the rescue operation, in a makeshift container. Far below, families and loved ones lived in a cluster of tents known as Camp Hope. While the men were still underground, Franklin interviewed them via a crude telephone; he helped send vital supplies to them via the " paloma" (pigeon). And when the first miners were rescued on October 13, Mr. Franklin had the first media contact with the recently freed men in a series of interviews from inside the field hospital. 33 Menreads like a thriller, toggling between the dramatic chaos belowground as the men realized that their escape routes were blocked and that their shelter held only enough rations for ten men to survive seventy-two hours; and the desperate rescue efforts aboveground-the massive campaign from the top level of the Chilean government to enlist and unite brilliant minds from around the world in the San Jos#xE9; rescue effort. In captivating and never-before- revealed detail, Franklin tells a spellbinding story of the improbable survival of the miners, trapped some 2,200 feet underground for sixty-nine days. He also chronicles what had to go right-an impossibly long list-to rescue them all alive. The death-defying rescue demanded endurance, ingenuity, and most of all, unified fronts above and below ground. To be sure, none of this came easily. Based on more than 110 interviews with the miners, their families, and the rescue team, Franklin's account combines an expert eye for detail and dialogue with the remarkable human interest story of these miners struggling to survive in a savage environment.

Author Biography

Jonathan Franklin has lived in Chile for more than fifteen years, twelve of those as The Guardian (UK) correspondent for Chile.

Granted a Rescue Team credential at the site of the Chilean mine disaster, his dispatches ran in The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Observer (UK) and The Sydney Morning Herald.   As cameraman at the mine, he filmed exclusive footage for ABC News, CNN International, Univision and the Discovery Channel.

Fluent in Spanish, Franklin has covered events ranging from the arrest of Augusto Pinochet to the inner workings of the cocaine trade during his years in South America.  His features are regularly published in GQ, Esquire, Marie Claire, Playboy and many other magazines.  As cofounder of www.AddictVillage.com, Mr. Franklin travels throughout Latin America to produce reports for magazines and newspapers worldwide. His investigative reporting has been used by ABC’s Nightline, CBS’s 60 Minutes, A&E, the BBC and numerous documentary productions worldwide.

An American who was raised in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Franklin moved to Chile in 1994 and currently resides in Santiago with his wife, Toty Garfe, and his six daughters.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Eyes of the World	p. 1
Buried Alive	p. 7
A Desperate Search	p. 27
Stuck in Hell	p. 451
Speed vs. Precision	p. 69
17 Days of Silence	p. 93
A Bonanza at the Bottom of the Mine	p. 113
Crawling Back to Life	p. 131
The Marathon	p. 155
TV Reality	p. 175
Finish Line in Sight	p. 197
The Final Days	p. 217
The Final Preparations	p. 233
The Rescue	p. 257
First Days of Freedom	p. 275
Epilogue: The Triumph of Hope	p. 295
Author's Note	p. 301
Acknowledgments	p. 305
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.