The Sea Hunters: True Adventures With Famous Shipwrecks by Clive Cussler and Craig Dirgo

Description

Bibliographic Details

• Authors: Clive Cussler and Craig Dirgo
• Title: The Sea Hunters: True Adventures With Famous Shipwrecks
• Publisher: ‎ Simon & Schuster; First Edition (October 7, 1996)
• Language: ‎ English
• Format: Hardcover – 364 pages‏
• ISBN-10: ‎ 0684830272
• ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0684830278
• Item Weight: ‎ 1.55 pounds
• Dimensions: ‎ 6.4 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
• Book Condition: Used – Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Edition: First Edition

Synopsis:

Clive Cussler is acclaimed worldwide as the Grandmaster of Adventure, and his series of novels starring his action hero Dirk Pitt now have over 70,000,000 copies in print.

Whether it's deep-sea diving, climbing mountains, or driving classic automobiles, adventure is at the heart of Cussler's life. As Cussler himself writes, "Providing my readers adventure tales based around a devil-may-care character by the name of Dirk Pitt is only one chapter of my existence. I'm addicted to the challenge of the search, whether it's for lost ship- wrecks, airplanes, steam locomotives, or people."

In The Sea Hunters, his first nonfiction book, Cussler explores the special world of undersea adventure that inspired and has its fictional parallel in the Dirk Pitt novels. He describes his lifelong love for the sea and ships, and how his involvement with the search for John Paul Jones's famous Revolutionary War ship, the Bonhomme Richard, led to his establishing the NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency) Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the discovery and preservation of historic shipwrecks.

From the more than sixty shipwrecks Cussler and his NUMA volunteers have found, he has chosen the twelve most interesting, whether because of the ship's history, the circumstances of its sinking, or the trouble, frustration, and peril that were encountered while trying to find the sunken wreck.

With the same wonderful storytelling that Cussler brings to his novels, he describes his searches for such ships as the Union 24-gun frigate Cumberland, sunk during the Civil War by the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia (formerly the Merrimack); the Confederate Hunley, which became the first submarine in history to sink a warship; the U-21, a German U-boat, which during World War I became the first sub to sink a warship and escape; and the American troop transport Leopoldville, which was destroyed by a German submarine on Christmas Eve, 1944, with huge loss of life; as well as Engine #51, the lost locomotive of Kiowa Creek, which roared off a storm-weakened high bridge in 1878.

The wrecks date as far back as 1840 and span the continental United States, the Atlantic Ocean, and the North Sea.

As he does in the Dirk Pitt novels, Cussler opens each story with a creative dramatization of the ship and the way she met her end, then brings the story into the present as he describes the immense research and careful preparation so often necessary to find a long lost ship.

For example, he describes the tragic fate of the steamboat Lexington, which burst into flames in the frigid winter of 1840, causing the loss of over 150 lives — but sparing Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who missed the trip only because he arrived at the dock seconds too late.

There's also the odd fate of the steamboat Charleston, which became the warship Zavala and which was so horribly damaged in a terrible Atlantic storm in 1842 that it was abandoned in a Galveston, Texas, marsh, and slowly sank from view. In tracing its location, Clive Cussler finally found it — under a parking lot!

Dramatic, compelling, and personal, Clive Cussler's The Sea Hunters is as exciting and satisfy- ing as the best of his Dirk Pitt novels.

About the Authors:

Clive Cussler began writing novels in 1965 and published his first work featuring his continuous series hero, Dirk Pitt, in 1973. His first non-fiction, The Sea Hunters, was released in 1996. The Board of Governors of the Maritime College, State University of New York, considered The Sea Hunters in lieu of a Ph.D. thesis and awarded Cussler a Doctor of Letters degree in May, 1997. It was the first time since the College was founded in 1874 that such a degree was bestowed.

Cussler was an internationally recognized authority on shipwrecks and the founder of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, (NUMA) a 501C3 non-profit organization (named after the fictional Federal agency in his novels) that dedicates itself to preserving American maritime and naval history. He and his crew of marine experts and NUMA volunteers discovered more than 60 historically significant underwater wreck sites including the first submarine to sink a ship in battle, the Confederacy's Hunley, and its victim, the Union's Housatonic; the U-20, the U-boat that sank the Lusitania; the Cumberland, which was sunk by the famous ironclad, Merrimack; the renowned Confederate raider Florida; the Navy airship, Akron, the Republic of Texas Navy warship, Zavala, found under a parking lot in Galveston, and the Carpathia, which sank almost six years to-the-day after plucking Titanic's survivors from the sea.

In addition to being the Chairman of NUMA, Cussler was also a fellow in both the Explorers Club of New York and the Royal Geographic Society in London. He was honored with the Lowell Thomas Award for outstanding underwater exploration.

Cussler's books have been published in more than 40 languages in more than 100 countries. His past international bestsellers include Pacific Vortex, Mediterranean Caper, Iceberg, Raise the Titanic, Vixen 03, Night Probe, Deep Six, Cyclops, Treasure, Dragon, Sahara, Inca Gold, Shock Wave, Flood Tide, Atlantis Found, Valhalla Rising, Trojan Odyssey and Black Wind (this last with his son, Dirk Cussler); the nonfiction books The Sea Hunters, The Sea Hunters II and Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed; the NUMA® Files novels Serpent, Blue Gold, Fire Ice, White Death and Lost City (written with Paul Kemprecos); and the Oregon Files novels Sacred Stone and Golden Buddha (written with Craig Dirgo) and Dark Watch (written with Jack Du Brul).

Clive Cussler died at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 24, 2020.

Craig Dirgo is the best-selling author of numerous novels including The Einstein Papers, The Tesla Documents, Gunnison Grit and New South Britain.

One of six children of an Air Force Colonel and a mother who treated dogs like people, he lived on various military bases before dropping anchor in Colorado as a pre-teen.

He now lives in Crested Butte, Colorado, where he enjoys skiing, hiking and bicycling. Sometimes when the wind smells just right, he misses the ocean alongside which he was born and spent many a day.

For more information about the author and his books go to craigdirgo.com