History.
Nonfiction.
HTML:As a "Sea Hunter" and host, with novelist Clive Cussler, for the new National Geographic International television series, join Delgado as the team searches for, discovers and explores, among others, the wrecks of RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued Titanicâ??s survivors; Mary Celeste, the infamous "ghost ship" found sailing alone without a soul aboard, in the mid-Atlantic in 1872; Vrouw Maria, a perfectly preserved Dutch cargo ship of 1771, discovered on the bottom of the Baltic Ocean packed with cargo, including crates of long-lost Old Masters belonging to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia; the lost ships of the Mongol fleet of Kublai Khan that invaded Japan in 1274; and wreck of the USS Mississinewa, the first ship sunk by a Japanese "suicide submarine" in WWII.
Stories and personalities of the past are interspersed with visits and voyages around the world - crossing the Atlantic, drifting in a powerless ship at the mercy of gales in the heart of the Pacific, and navigating through the fabled Northwest Passage. The undeniable thrill of being where history was made make "Adventures of a Sea Hunter" a highly entertaining, personal account of the exploration of the sea and the past that rests beneath the wav… (plus d'informations)
Q: Why is a book about underwater archaeology like a shipwreck?
A: Because both run the risk of having been looted of their content.
James Delgado is a trained archaeology who does most of his work investigating ships and shipwrecks, and he has produced several books on the subject -- often thematic, as when he examined the ships and sailors who searched for the Northwest Passage in the nineteenth century. Those books are often extremely interesting.
This, one of his later books, is again about underwater explorations -- but the only real theme is Delgado's presence at the sites he's explored. This is a genuine problem, because it prevents us from getting a real overview of what is going on. It's like sticking pins in a map and going there. Sometimes you'll see something great and interesting. Sometimes you'll visit -- New Jersey. (Or Toledo, or Kansas, or whatever is your personal version of The Really Boring Place.) And, because Delgado is always hopping around, you never learn much about any of the individual shipwrecks he discovers. Plus, far too much of it is about the actual task of diving -- interesting to some, maybe, but I'm in it for the history.
The result is very uneven -- although you'll probably find one or two accounts you'll find interesting (I was interested in the fate of Leopold McClintock's Fox), four or five pages later, you'll be involved in something else which is likely to be much less interesting.
If this book were four or five times as long, so that we could get all the history on each particular wreck, it might be truly fascinating. As it is, I really wanted to jump ship before it sank. ( )
The topic is extremely interesting, but I don't think Delgado is a particularly captivating writer. After a while, all the stories faded in to one another - a history of the ship told in emotionally lurid detail, then a brief description of their dives down to see the wreck. I think I would have preferred more detail devoted to those second parts of the story, as that's what I find the most fascinating. ( )
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they were -- about hanging and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, TREASURE ISLAND
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
This is for my mother, who had to tolerate human bones and stone tools in her bathtub as I learned about the past as a teenage archaeologist. And for making her cry as a middle-aged archaeologist who dives in dangerous places because, as she points out, I'll always be her little boy.
This is also for Ann, who keeps the hope fires burning while juggling a career and an often missing-in-action archaeologist.
And last, for Beau, my faithful feline companion during many an evening's writing marathon. It's not the same without him.
Premiers mots
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
FOREWORD by Clive Cussler Ships and their crews have been sailing off into oblivion since the dawn of recorded history.
Citations
Derniers mots
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
History.
Nonfiction.
HTML:As a "Sea Hunter" and host, with novelist Clive Cussler, for the new National Geographic International television series, join Delgado as the team searches for, discovers and explores, among others, the wrecks of RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued Titanicâ??s survivors; Mary Celeste, the infamous "ghost ship" found sailing alone without a soul aboard, in the mid-Atlantic in 1872; Vrouw Maria, a perfectly preserved Dutch cargo ship of 1771, discovered on the bottom of the Baltic Ocean packed with cargo, including crates of long-lost Old Masters belonging to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia; the lost ships of the Mongol fleet of Kublai Khan that invaded Japan in 1274; and wreck of the USS Mississinewa, the first ship sunk by a Japanese "suicide submarine" in WWII.
Stories and personalities of the past are interspersed with visits and voyages around the world - crossing the Atlantic, drifting in a powerless ship at the mercy of gales in the heart of the Pacific, and navigating through the fabled Northwest Passage. The undeniable thrill of being where history was made make "Adventures of a Sea Hunter" a highly entertaining, personal account of the exploration of the sea and the past that rests beneath the wav
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1
A: Because both run the risk of having been looted of their content.
James Delgado is a trained archaeology who does most of his work investigating ships and shipwrecks, and he has produced several books on the subject -- often thematic, as when he examined the ships and sailors who searched for the Northwest Passage in the nineteenth century. Those books are often extremely interesting.
This, one of his later books, is again about underwater explorations -- but the only real theme is Delgado's presence at the sites he's explored. This is a genuine problem, because it prevents us from getting a real overview of what is going on. It's like sticking pins in a map and going there. Sometimes you'll see something great and interesting. Sometimes you'll visit -- New Jersey. (Or Toledo, or Kansas, or whatever is your personal version of The Really Boring Place.) And, because Delgado is always hopping around, you never learn much about any of the individual shipwrecks he discovers. Plus, far too much of it is about the actual task of diving -- interesting to some, maybe, but I'm in it for the history.
The result is very uneven -- although you'll probably find one or two accounts you'll find interesting (I was interested in the fate of Leopold McClintock's Fox), four or five pages later, you'll be involved in something else which is likely to be much less interesting.
If this book were four or five times as long, so that we could get all the history on each particular wreck, it might be truly fascinating. As it is, I really wanted to jump ship before it sank. (