A steamboat goes up in flames . . . and down to the bottom of the sea. A locomotive plunges into a creek . . . and vanishes into mystery. A German U-boat sends an American troop transport, and eight hundred on board, to a watery grave . . . on Christmas Eve.
Clive Cussler and his crack team of NUMA (National Underwater Marine Agency, a nonprofit organization that searches for historic shipwrecks) volunteers have found the remains of these and numerous other tragic wrecks. Here are the dramatic, true accounts of twelve of the most remarkable underwater discoveries made by Cussler and his team. As suspenseful and satisfying as Cussler’s renowned Dirk Pitt novels, The Sea Hunters is a unique story of true commitment and courage.
From Publishers Weekly
Bestselling novelist Cussler (Shock Wave) and Dirgo are both members of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, a group financed principally by the income from Cussler's books and dedicated to finding famous marine wrecks. Not treasure hunters, they merely hope to locate the corpses of lost ships and give the artifacts they recover to museums and historical societies. In this absorbing, fast-paced collection, they chronicle searches for such ships as the Lexington, lost in Long Island Sound in 1840; the Zavala, a ship of the Republic of Texas Navy that ran aground in the Galveston Ship Channel in 1842 and is now under a parking lot; several vessels from the Civil War era, including the Hunley, the first submarine to sink a warship, and her victim, the Housatonic; and the Leopoldville, a troop transport torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1944 with the loss of 800 GIs, a disaster the U.S., Britain and Belgium all tried to cover up. The authors begin each chapter with a "slightly dramatized" account of the actual shipwreck. More convincing are Cussler's first-person reminiscences of searches and salvages. The text is supplemented by well-drawn maps. 400,000 first printing. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA. Drawing upon research and his own dramatic interpretations, Cussler describes 12 deep-sea wrecks, one of which is actually a steam locomotive. He introduces each incident through a fictionalized account of the tragedy and a map that shows the general geography under discussion. The author then describes the various attempts he and his companions made before actually locating that specific site. Often filled with humorous remarks and barbed comments, this firsthand narrative of the physical and mental challenges they faced also provides insight into the human and bureaucratic factors involved in such explorations. Selected photographs of ships appear in the midsection of the book. Cussler deftly re-creates the terror, courage, and often horrible deaths of the people aboard the wreck, thus enlivening the past. He transfers a sense of driven energy, excitement, and commitment through his accounts. Bound to appeal to adventurous YAs, and a good supplemental curriculum tie-in.?Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
A steamboat goes up in flames . . . and down to the bottom of the sea. A locomotive plunges into a creek . . . and vanishes into mystery. A German U-boat sends an American troop transport, and eight hundred on board, to a watery grave . . . on Christmas Eve.
Clive Cussler and his crack team of NUMA (National Underwater Marine Agency, a nonprofit organization that searches for historic shipwrecks) volunteers have found the remains of these and numerous other tragic wrecks. Here are the dramatic, true accounts of twelve of the most remarkable underwater discoveries made by Cussler and his team. As suspenseful and satisfying as Cussler’s renowned Dirk Pitt novels, The Sea Hunters is a unique story of true commitment and courage.
From Publishers Weekly
Bestselling novelist Cussler (Shock Wave) and Dirgo are both members of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, a group financed principally by the income from Cussler's books and dedicated to finding famous marine wrecks. Not treasure hunters, they merely hope to locate the corpses of lost ships and give the artifacts they recover to museums and historical societies. In this absorbing, fast-paced collection, they chronicle searches for such ships as the Lexington, lost in Long Island Sound in 1840; the Zavala, a ship of the Republic of Texas Navy that ran aground in the Galveston Ship Channel in 1842 and is now under a parking lot; several vessels from the Civil War era, including the Hunley, the first submarine to sink a warship, and her victim, the Housatonic; and the Leopoldville, a troop transport torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1944 with the loss of 800 GIs, a disaster the U.S., Britain and Belgium all tried to cover up. The authors begin each chapter with a "slightly dramatized" account of the actual shipwreck. More convincing are Cussler's first-person reminiscences of searches and salvages. The text is supplemented by well-drawn maps. 400,000 first printing.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA. Drawing upon research and his own dramatic interpretations, Cussler describes 12 deep-sea wrecks, one of which is actually a steam locomotive. He introduces each incident through a fictionalized account of the tragedy and a map that shows the general geography under discussion. The author then describes the various attempts he and his companions made before actually locating that specific site. Often filled with humorous remarks and barbed comments, this firsthand narrative of the physical and mental challenges they faced also provides insight into the human and bureaucratic factors involved in such explorations. Selected photographs of ships appear in the midsection of the book. Cussler deftly re-creates the terror, courage, and often horrible deaths of the people aboard the wreck, thus enlivening the past. He transfers a sense of driven energy, excitement, and commitment through his accounts. Bound to appeal to adventurous YAs, and a good supplemental curriculum tie-in.?Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.