I liked so much about this book, I really wanted to give it 5 stars...but there are enough rough spots that I couldn't.

Shomette begins his tale very well, as he begins with a ship that begins its life at sea for one purpose and then carries us along as the "mission" changes. The ship is eventually wrecked, and we learn about maritime law (which is a slightly different beast than we landlubbers are familiar with). He takes us through the sinking of the ship and the eventual discovery nearly a century later. And then he introduces us to casual scavengers who take no care in how they approach sunken "treasure." One would think, in this day and age, that we all understand how much AIR can do to destroy artifacts that have been living in anaerobic conditions. How Shomette obtained funding and sponsorship for his archeology was well written and attention-grabbing.

Part two of the book (it is divided into 3 parts) is also interesting--detailing the first settlement at Kents Island, on the Eastern Shore of the state of Maryland. The comparison maps of the Bay today, and the Bay 7,000 BP (before present) just incredible. But too often he forgets to "tell" us the story and simply copies diaries, journals, and old letters. I found it rough slogging through much of it.

Part three of the book is about Mallows Bay, a graveyard for a WWI fleet of wooden vessels. Again, he sometimes lapses into facts and figures and forgets to tell his story. But the end of the book, as he tells of nature reclaiming the Bay and recreating its own new ecosystem with the flotsam left there by humankind is uplifting.

I am glad I read it, though I wish Shomette had hired a ghost writer to help him write the book that should have been written. His research was so impressive. Perhaps a student of antiquities or colonial times will appreciate the book more than I did. ( )