SHIPWRECKS, SKIN DIVERS AND SUNKEN GOLD

This is an engaging survey of sunken ships on the Atlantic coast and offers possible sites for exploration. The general lure of the book is the bright hope that the reader just might be able to find a fortune in treasure if he gets into condition for some scuba diving. Since the days of Blackbeard the Pirate, hundreds of ships have sunk off-shore with chests of gold on board--and gold, unlike silver, resists deterioration. The author has spent fifteen years researching this catalogue of disasters and is quite wise to both the technical and the elemental aspects of diving. He has little love for scavenger fortune hunters who are merely out for scrap; rather, he respects the romantically dedicated treasure specialist who insists on bookwork before spadework. Much of the present book puts famous wrecks into their historical perspective in relation to the Age of Piracy, the Spanish armadas, the Revolutionary War, Civil War, the Second World War and so on. He also includes a chapter on equipment, as well as a huge list of exact locations. His many stories are both exciting and amusing.