Cannabis and porn, but no blow-up sex dolls in case of jealousy: The remarkable inside story of the Chilean miners trapped underground for nine fraught weeks



Recorded footage of rescue was shown after avalanche damaged video cable, with the world unaware

Cannabis given to some of the miners, but others got jealous after not being offered any

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera wanted to be first rescuer into the mine

Their spirit in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity gripped the world.



But human reserves alone were not always enough to keep the 33 trapped Chilean miners' morale high, it has been revealed.

To make their ordeal a little more bearable as they awaited rescue, drugs were smuggled down to them in family letters, a new book claims.

Fraught: The 33rd and last miner, Luis Urzua, emerges from the San Jose mine in Chile after an incredible rescue operation

Desperate: A new book reveals the trapped miners were sent cannabis, pornography and pin-up posters to help them cope with being stuck underground

They also sought a further lift during the 69 days they spent half a mile underground by asking for blow-up sex dolls.



When this was refused because the doctor in charge feared having to share them would lead to jealousy, the miners had to make do with pin-up posters instead.

Nor did the presence of marijuana, posted down a communications shaft to them, necessarily promote camaraderie, the book says.



One miner, Samuel Avalos, noticed how a group of his colleagues would peel away, he suspected, to smoke the drug.



But, said they 'never even offered me one' although he was desperate to relieve the stress of his predicament.

Permission denied: Chilean President Sebastian Pinera embraces the second miner out Mario Sepulveda. The book reveals Mr Pinera wanted to be the first rescuer into the mine, but his wife wouldn't let him

Hero: Manuel Gonzalez, the last rescue out of the mine, waves to the camera. The rescue team was apoplectic after the mining minister Lawrence Goldbourne allowed another man into the mine

The world watches: But the book, by the New York Times' Jonathan Franklin, reveals the rescue was interrupted after an avalanche which was not shown around the globe

The book's author, New York Times journalist Jonathan Franklin who gained special access to the rescue operation, said the small amount of drugs 'created more tension than it relieved' and claims worried officials discussed using a sniffer dog to intercept drugs before they were posted.

The men's 'greatest need', however, was women, Franklin says, and doctors worked on 'how to appease the expected rise in sexual desires'.

Once Chilean doctor monitoring the miners' physical condition while they were trapped in the San Jose gold and copper mine in northern Chile's Atacama Desert, said a donor offered ten inflatable dolls for the miners', but was turned down.

'I said 33 or none. Otherwise they would be fighting for inflatable dolls: whose turn is it? Who was seen with whose fiancee? You are flirting with my inflatable doll,' the medic, Dr Jean Romagnoli, reportedly said.

Pride: Elizabeth Segovia, sister of rescued miner Dario, collects a religious figure as she dismantles a site set up in honour of the 33 trapped in the mine

Success story: The miners pose for the camera in Copiapo Hospital. More than a billion people watched the rescue unfold

Instead, the pin-ups from La Cuarta, a Chilean tabloid famous its girls known as Bomba 4', and pornography were sent instead.



The book also tells how in the first two weeks while the miners' thought they were doomed their thoughts turned to the squad of Uruguayans who survived a plane crash in the Andes while flying to Chile for a rugby match in 1972 and who, after days of starvation, began to eat those who had died.

After a fortnight the miners were rationed to a spoonful of tuna every three days and, expecting to die, wrote farewell letters to their families.



Reaching the last of their food, they held hands and prayed - in vain - for the two cans of tuna they had left to duplicate.



On the 17th day the spectre of cannibalism faded as the narrow communication shaft reached them and food could be sent down from above.



But Franklin says the miners became fussy about what they were receiving and threatened to go on hunger strike over the censorship of family letters.



He also claims in the book, called 'The 33', that the Chilean authorities imposed two blackouts during coverage of the dramatic rescue last October to cover up near disasters as the miners were hauled out.