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Adventures of a Sea Hunter: In Search of Famous Shipwrecks
Leading archaeologist and consummate storyteller James Delgado takes readers on a rollicking deep-sea dive into his highly unusual life's work: locating and exploring the world's most famous shipwrecks. Colorful characters, near misses, and the thrill of standing — or floating — in history's footprints make for a highly entertaining look at the fascinating history and glittering bounty beneath the waves. Included are accounts of Pearl Harbor, the Titanic, and Bikini Atoll, site of the world's first nuclear tests.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published August 4, 2004
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332 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 12, 2011
Adventures of a Sea Hunter is a decent book. It is really more of a shipwreck sampler than an in depth study of historical wrecks, but this format worked just fine for me, as it allowed me to refresh my memory regarding wrecks that I am familiar with, and whetted my curiosity of wrecks that are new to me. The book appears to center a great deal on wrecks explored on The Sea Hunters TV series that aired several years ago, and at points in the book I found those references to the TV show to be distracting. I'd have just preferred to read about these wrecks without reference to a TV show that James Delgado was affiliated with at the time he wrote the book.
Delgado's descriptions of diving some of the wrecks featured in this book were just lovely. His description of the dive he did on the U.S.S. Arizona was haunting and moving, and his description of the wrecks in the Bikini Atoll was fascinating to me (I am also a sucker for the early days of the American nuclear program, so shipwrecks *and* nukes are just the cat's pajamas for me). I found other chapters to be quite interesting as well (e.g., the chapter on the Carpathia and the chapter on Kublai Khan's lost fleet), but I do think that the first half of the book was far more appealing to me than the second half, for some reason.
Although Adventures of a Sea Hunter was interesting, the copy editing of this book left a lot to be desired. The book was riddled with typos, grammatical errors, awkward sentences, and sentence fragments. My own writing has lost a lot of its sparkle since I graduated from college, and frankly, I'd have *never* been employed as a copy editor at any point in my life, so I really am not someone who should criticize this aspect of any work. That said, however, these types of errors were plentiful and obvious in this work, and it would not be fair to fail to note that. I was able to read around these errors and still enjoy the book, but readers who are distracted by errors in writing will have a lot to be frustrated by with this book.
Delgado's descriptions of diving some of the wrecks featured in this book were just lovely. His description of the dive he did on the U.S.S. Arizona was haunting and moving, and his description of the wrecks in the Bikini Atoll was fascinating to me (I am also a sucker for the early days of the American nuclear program, so shipwrecks *and* nukes are just the cat's pajamas for me). I found other chapters to be quite interesting as well (e.g., the chapter on the Carpathia and the chapter on Kublai Khan's lost fleet), but I do think that the first half of the book was far more appealing to me than the second half, for some reason.
Although Adventures of a Sea Hunter was interesting, the copy editing of this book left a lot to be desired. The book was riddled with typos, grammatical errors, awkward sentences, and sentence fragments. My own writing has lost a lot of its sparkle since I graduated from college, and frankly, I'd have *never* been employed as a copy editor at any point in my life, so I really am not someone who should criticize this aspect of any work. That said, however, these types of errors were plentiful and obvious in this work, and it would not be fair to fail to note that. I was able to read around these errors and still enjoy the book, but readers who are distracted by errors in writing will have a lot to be frustrated by with this book.
June 25, 2023
First of all, I want to point out that. I really like this type of content. Boating, yachting, sailing, fishing and anything that falls under the concept of a marina.
I leave this information below for those who want to read it. A look at Boat and Yacht History:
the ships we encounter today are; They are large, robust and self-propelled watercraft used to transport cargo across the seas and oceans. This was not the case hundreds of years ago, and current ships went through centuries of development until they became what they are today.
In ancient times, sailors used rafts, bamboo logs, reed bales, inflated animal hides, and baskets covered with pitch to cross small bodies of water.
As a matter of fact, the first boat; it was in the form of a simple frame made of interconnected rods and sewn animal hides that skillfully covered them. These boats could easily carry large and heavy loads. Information about similar old boat examples; You can find it among bull boats, Eskimo canoes, and British Islander merchant ships on the North American plains. In addition to these, another old-style boat is the one carved from the log and the ends of which are sharpened. Some of these were 60 feet (approx. 18 m) long.
When we look at the history of seafaring in ancient times, we come across a very interesting study of human strength and survival instincts. For example, in ancient times, the simple shovel mechanism we know was not used. Instead, people used their hands to move through the water in tiny boats. They propelled their rafts forward, pushing the masts to the bottom of the rivers. Increasingly, using his creative instincts and ingenuity, man redesigned the posts by straightening them and widening one end, thus making it usable in deeper waters. Later, this form was masterfully redeveloped and the blade fixed to the sides of the boat was transformed into the shape of a wide oar.
Invention of the sail
The invention of the sail was the greatest turning point in maritime history. Sails replaced human muscle movements, and sailboats were able to travel longer with heavier loads. The first ships used square sails, which were best suited to sail downwind. Side sails were invented later.
The Egyptians credit the emergence of advanced sailing cargo ships. These were made by connecting and stitching together small pieces of wood. These cargo ships were used to transport large stone pillars used in the construction of monuments.
Here are the contents I love about two beautiful marinas.
https://theboatyacht.com/hunter-legen...
https://numberoneboats.com/hunter-leg...
https://theboatyacht.com/boats-for-sa...
https://numberoneboats.com/boats-for-...
https://theboatyacht.com/hunter-chann...
https://numberoneboats.com/hunter-cha...
https://theboatyacht.com/boats-for-sa...
https://numberoneboats.com/boats-for-...
https://numberoneboats.com/24-sea-hun...
https://numberoneboats.com/hunter-leg...
I leave this information below for those who want to read it. A look at Boat and Yacht History:
the ships we encounter today are; They are large, robust and self-propelled watercraft used to transport cargo across the seas and oceans. This was not the case hundreds of years ago, and current ships went through centuries of development until they became what they are today.
In ancient times, sailors used rafts, bamboo logs, reed bales, inflated animal hides, and baskets covered with pitch to cross small bodies of water.
As a matter of fact, the first boat; it was in the form of a simple frame made of interconnected rods and sewn animal hides that skillfully covered them. These boats could easily carry large and heavy loads. Information about similar old boat examples; You can find it among bull boats, Eskimo canoes, and British Islander merchant ships on the North American plains. In addition to these, another old-style boat is the one carved from the log and the ends of which are sharpened. Some of these were 60 feet (approx. 18 m) long.
When we look at the history of seafaring in ancient times, we come across a very interesting study of human strength and survival instincts. For example, in ancient times, the simple shovel mechanism we know was not used. Instead, people used their hands to move through the water in tiny boats. They propelled their rafts forward, pushing the masts to the bottom of the rivers. Increasingly, using his creative instincts and ingenuity, man redesigned the posts by straightening them and widening one end, thus making it usable in deeper waters. Later, this form was masterfully redeveloped and the blade fixed to the sides of the boat was transformed into the shape of a wide oar.
Invention of the sail
The invention of the sail was the greatest turning point in maritime history. Sails replaced human muscle movements, and sailboats were able to travel longer with heavier loads. The first ships used square sails, which were best suited to sail downwind. Side sails were invented later.
The Egyptians credit the emergence of advanced sailing cargo ships. These were made by connecting and stitching together small pieces of wood. These cargo ships were used to transport large stone pillars used in the construction of monuments.
Here are the contents I love about two beautiful marinas.
https://theboatyacht.com/hunter-legen...
https://numberoneboats.com/hunter-leg...
https://theboatyacht.com/boats-for-sa...
https://numberoneboats.com/boats-for-...
https://theboatyacht.com/hunter-chann...
https://numberoneboats.com/hunter-cha...
https://theboatyacht.com/boats-for-sa...
https://numberoneboats.com/boats-for-...
https://numberoneboats.com/24-sea-hun...
https://numberoneboats.com/hunter-leg...
October 29, 2018
Some great descriptions of clear and silty water dives, in warm, cold and, in some cases, downright dangerous conditions, these wreck stories and nicely interspersed with historical research and backstories of the crew and vessels.
Having said that, my favorite was of a wreck that was completely open to view by everyone at low tide, but was not recognized for its historical significance until a change encounter by the author.
One glitch on the Kindle version I read was that numbers came up as the letter 'n' so I had to use the little grey cells in some cases to get the full picture. But this is about adventure and exploration - and shipwrecks fit the bill every time.
Having said that, my favorite was of a wreck that was completely open to view by everyone at low tide, but was not recognized for its historical significance until a change encounter by the author.
One glitch on the Kindle version I read was that numbers came up as the letter 'n' so I had to use the little grey cells in some cases to get the full picture. But this is about adventure and exploration - and shipwrecks fit the bill every time.
December 18, 2017
Some guys really get to walk through history. And in this book Delgado, who is a director of an institute in DC shares a lot of his favorite dives and adventures. Some of them not even dives at all. Excavating a ship that was present for the San Francisco fire in 1806. Diving inside a mountain where the Nazis built and launched V-2 rockets. Going to the Titanic. Diving in Pearl Harbor with battleships. He shares nuggets from these adventures and you can tell they have been epic. Fascinating walk through history...
June 11, 2020
Really enjoyed this book.
I liked how he gave a good overview of the history of every wreck
Would definitely recommend
I liked how he gave a good overview of the history of every wreck
Would definitely recommend
June 19, 2024
Interesting history of shipwrecks dived by the author while working with Clive Cussler and NUMA.
February 8, 2025
Mainly here for the ghost stories
May 9, 2022
“You don’t know till you go” is tried and true wisdom in the difficult task of shipwreck identification.”
~
James Delgado takes us under the sea in a collection of captivating tales of his dives on various sunken ships. He provides a brief history of these lost vessels, bringing them back from the depths and into the minds of the readers to share their stories so they may live on. Delgado also describes his dives and the feelings of seeing the sunken crafts, sometimes for the first time since they were lost. An informative, yet easier read, to bring some insight into the history of sunken ships.
~
James Delgado takes us under the sea in a collection of captivating tales of his dives on various sunken ships. He provides a brief history of these lost vessels, bringing them back from the depths and into the minds of the readers to share their stories so they may live on. Delgado also describes his dives and the feelings of seeing the sunken crafts, sometimes for the first time since they were lost. An informative, yet easier read, to bring some insight into the history of sunken ships.
June 20, 2024
An interesting survey of a number of historical wrecks the author has dived on. He leads off with the history surrounding the wreck, then proceeds to describe his diving and discoveries. As you go from one wreck to another, interesting, and little known tid bits of history are uncovered. Being a history lover, I loved the book.
June 28, 2016
I reviewed this book here: http://www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blo...
May 10, 2013
Fantastic non-fiction with conspiracies, hidden shipwrecks, mysteries, and more!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews