The Guardian, 19 Aug 1974, Mon, Page 18

Vernon Unsworth has had an interesting couple of weeks. First, he was part of the team of cave divers who rescued 12 boys and their coach from a deep cave in Chang Rai, Thailand. After the rescue Vernon was praised by the media and people around the world for his help in the rescue, except by one very rich and powerful man.

During several of the interviews Unsworth was asked about the mini sub sent by Elon Musk, which he let his feelings be well known that he thought Elon Musk was merely using the situation as a “PR stunt” and even told Musk to “stick it (the submarine) where it hurts”.

Musk fired back and claimed that Unsworth was the one sticking it where it hurts, and even worse, he was doing so to children by alleging Unsworth was a “pedo(phile)”. Musk later deleted the tweet, but Unsworth is now considering legal action for libel, but that’s only if Unsworth doesn’t have any skeletons hiding in his cave that would make the statement by Musk to be true. Interestingly enough, Unsworth himself was trapped as a teen in a cave miles underground and had to also be freed.

(The Guardian, 19 Aug 1974)

In August of 1974, Unsworth, along with 4 others, found themselves trapped in a cave after a 6 ton boulder fell and trapped them some 2 miles underground. Luckily for the 5 who were trapped, 2 of their friends were not trapped and ran into town for some help. Dozens of police, fire and rescue volunteers worked for nearly 24 hours to jack up the boulder to save the group. The story of the cave rescue spread across the world, just as happened in Thailand, and was printed in almost every major newspaper one could find at the time, from New York to Paris.

(The Guardian, 19 Aug 1974)

Whether or not Unsworth is a pedophile is something that he and Elon will have to work out, but we here at Rabble Rouser think Unsworth just might be the only person to ever make international news as both the rescued, and the rescuer of someone being trapped in a cave.