The Sea Hunters II
The Sea Hunters II book cover

The Sea Hunters II

Hardcover – December 2, 2002

by
Price
$5.89
Format
Hardcover
Pages
464
Publisher
Putnam Adult
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0399149252
Dimensions
6.26 x 1.55 x 9.34 inches
Weight
1.23 pounds

Description

From Publishers Weekly Well known for his series of action adventure novels starring Dirk Pitt, Cussler is also the founder of the nonprofit National Underwater and Marine Agency, a group that searches for shipwrecks of historical significance. The group does not salvage any artifacts; they simply note the wreckage location and turn their information over to appropriate agencies for further study and planning. In this fast-paced narrative that doesn't tinker with the earlier Sea Hunters' successful formula, Cussler and his teams search for 300 years' worth of wrecks as varied as La Salle's 17th-century flagship, a dirigible lost in a storm off the New Jersey coast in 1933 and the famous PT-109. Cussler traveled along the coast of Texas, up the Mississippi River and to the jungles of the South Pacific in search of historically important wrecks of all sorts. Cussler first provides the historical background for each tragedy (sometimes inventing dialogue when there are no survivors to interview), then dives into his own adventures. One of Cussler's unsuccessful searches took his team to the Maine wilderness, where they tried to locate the wreckage of a French airplane that crashed in 1927 on its way to Washington, having crossed the Atlantic nonstop, before Charles Lindbergh. On the other hand, his crew found the RMS Carpathia (the ship that rescued the survivors of the Titanic), which had been sunk by a German U-boat off the Irish coast in 1918. Cussler's artful writing style and varied experiences while searching for historical treasures make this a first-rate adventure book sure to please any student of history and the odd Pitt fan who takes the plunge. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal This is nonfiction, but it's still pretty thrilling: Cussler recounts the efforts of his organization, NUMAR the National Underwater and Marine Agency to dredge up lost ships with historical value. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Clive Cussler is the author of many New York Times bestsellers, most recently The Thief , The Storm , and The Tombs . He lives in Arizona. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • Collects the dramatic, true-life accounts of the remarkable underwater discoveries made by the author and his team of NUMA volunteers--a group dedicated to the exploration of historic wrecks--including the tale of the ghost ship Mary Celeste, the Carpathia, and other steamships, ironclads, a PT boat, a long-lost airplane, and a dirigible. 350,000 first printing.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(206)
★★★★
25%
(86)
★★★
15%
(51)
★★
7%
(24)
★
-7%
(-24)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Great book, much like last, but still different.

This book is full of "Cusslerettes" - those short, facinating narratives into the world of history. Forget the failed searches and insight into his life (though they too are written wonderfully and a pleasure to read) and enjoy the incredible tales of men and machines set in situations that dumbfound. Those short stories were real page turners- and true!
6 people found this helpful
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The Sea Shall Claim Its Own.

This second volume covers recovery efforts of twenty years, 1981-2001. They've searched for the location of the futuristic blimp, Akron, lost in 1933 and White Bird airplane which crashed in 1927, in rural Maine. The lost locomotive east of Denver in 1876 was the first insurance scam. Pirate ships can be traced back to Jean Laffite in 1821 who spent the last years of his life in America under an assumed name.

He gives a fascinating hyposis of what might have happened to cause the captain and crew of Mary Celest to abandon ship and how each died. Since there were no survivors, this is a good case of "modern history writing" using some imagination and supposition, slightly dramatized. Here we have details of the deaths and burials at sea, even the captain asking the German brothers, last two survivors, to kill him. They, too, succumed to the elements. It's strange that their lifeboat was never found. Twelve years later, the Mary Celeste hit the coral reefs near Haiti and sank. Clive Cussler was in on the filming of a failed recovery 116 years later, as the coral growth had covered the shipwreck with no way to cut through it, making it unrecoverable. It was the grave for a Ghost Ship of notoriety.

Success came with the recovery of the Confederate sub Huntley after being submerged for 136 years. Other Civil War casualties they searched for included the Confederate raiders, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama and ironclads Arkansas and Louisiana (among others) and the Union frigate Cumberland and ironclad Carondelet. Seems he always came South in August. They searched for the Revolutionary War sub Turtle, the twin sisters cannons from San Jacinto war, swamp angel gun used during the Civil War, and a steamer called Stonewall Jackson. New Orleans was the first steamboat to go down the Mississippi River.

In addition to writing his novels, C. C. will narrate a series of SEA HUNTERS documentaries on famous shipwrecks for Eco-Nova of Nova Scotia. Look for them on PBS.
5 people found this helpful
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Lightweight mix of fact and fiction

I'm not a fan of fiction, so the format of "The Sea Hunters", which combines a novel woven within historic fact (or is it historic fact woven within a novel?) just didn't work for me.
Cussler's NUMA team has actively searched for historic shipwrecks over the years, and scored big time with the C.S.S. Hunley. In this book, he relates the adventures he has had looking for other important wrecks. While he does provide some interesting background to the ships, the historical value of his accounts is too lightweight to be of any real significance.
The real "meat" of his book is his quest for the wrecks themselves. However, Cussler focuses more on the search than on what he and his crew found, and most of his "discoveries" are limited to magnetometer sweeps. Cussler then includes fictional accounts of the ship to flesh out his tales.
While I was not expecting extensive archaeological investigations of the wrecks, I did want Cussler to provide some detail. For example, his team found the exposed wreck of the U.S.S. Patapsco, but Cussler mentions only that they found some guns and artifacts. He makes no mention of the ship's condition, no photos, and no wreck diagrams. This book remided me of a fishing trip - They went out, looked around, and had fun. Whether they actually caught something was of secondary importance.
The book is: 30% fiction, 40% NUMA guys looking around, 25% historical background, and 5% information about what they found. If you like lightweight history, armchair adventure stories, or fiction, you might enjoy this book. For anyone looking for a historical or archaeological resource, go elsewhere.
4 people found this helpful
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I enjoyed the first, but this one....

I really enjoyed the first volume, but as I read this one something began to bother me. I couldn't put my finger on it until about page 108 when Cussler, or should I say Dirgo, details a friend's sense of humour.
The friend refuses to stow his bag on the plane, because it really isn't against FAA regulations not to. The flight attendant has to deal with this fellow, who Cussler tells us is an FAA investigator, and a retired Col. in the Air Force, as he refuses to do as she asks. She has to get the pilot to come and speak to this friend, who when faced with a "suitable" authority figure, has already stowed the bag.
Ho-ho! What a great joke.
Then it hit me, the whole book is filled with "We're so much smarter than everyone" episodes from the flight attendant to a 7/11 clerk. If you agree that Cussler and his friends are the pinnacles of human evolution, then this is the book for you.
I would recommend reading the historical chapters and skipping the rest.
3 people found this helpful
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CC is a Nautical Hero

Few people in history have had the talents, time, and tenacity to do what Mr. Cussler has.
To spin his writing skills, and imagination of fictional adventures in NMMA, to real world
marine archaeological exploration must be the Most Fun a grown man can have.
I'm sure he's not done yet.
2 people found this helpful
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What happened?

I agree with the other reviewers, the first Sea Hunters was much better, even though there were problems with that book. This one is jarring in places - you can clearly see where Clive Cussler left off and Craig Dirgo picked up. Dirgo is not a good writer. I found some inaccuracies, which I know Cussler didn't make, because his research is meticulous. It's too bad, this could have been a better book with the right writer.
The only reason I am keeping this book is because I'm in the last chapter (which I helped write, which means it was written well). It's fun to pull the book out and show people the photo and part I wrote. Then it goes right back on the shelf.
2 people found this helpful
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Too much unsubstantiated fiction

When writing a work of fiction interwoven with historical fact, the author(s) really should provide an appendix clearly separating the two.
I mention only two examples from this book. The White Bird was a plane that has never been found, yet Cussler writes authoritatively on exactly how the two men died, from one man getting the top of his head cut off to the other having his back broken and sinking beneath the waves.
Second is the Marie Celeste, where he has the crew get into a boat to escape what they believe to be a sinking ship, how they become separated from the ship, and a chronology of how each one of the crew dies.
Now, reading his attempts to discover the wrecks is interesting, but I wish he'd not tried the fiction parts of it which really do invalidate this book as a serious source.
2 people found this helpful
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Sea Hunters

I have not had a chance to read this book yet. I simply purchased it in order to complete my collection of Clive Cussler books.
1 people found this helpful
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A whale of a good book

My first Cussler book was Raise the Titanic. I haven't been a steady reader but have enjoyed the books that I have read. When I read The Sea Hunters (the first one) I was impressed in the diversity that Cussler showed. Not all fiction authors are comfortable in the nonfiction arena. But Cussler was or is.
This second outing of Sea Hunters is as good as the first. If you liked the first one than you'll probably enjoy the second. For me, two stories stand out more than the others. L'Oisear Blanc (The White Bird) concerns the Paris to New York attempt of Nungesser and Coli in 1927. While there were many attempts to capture the $25,000 prize for being the first to make this trip, it was Nungesser and Coli that preceded Lindberg by mere days. Of course, Lindberg made it and Nungesser and Coli have never been heard of after they apparently failed in their attempt. Working on slim clues, Cussler made several attempts to find their downed aircraft in the back woods and lakes of Maine. The other story that impresses me is R. M. S. Carpathia. It was the Carpathia that raced to the aid of Titanic survivors in 1912 only to be lost to a German U Boat a few years later.
Cussler manages to write in a relaxed manner. His tales are spellbinding. I'm sure that in the years to come he may be remembered with the other great adverturers of the 20th Century. This is a good read.
1 people found this helpful
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True tales of doomed ships...

Great sequel. First timers be aware the are fact based short stories on some famous wrecks Cussler has a personal interest in. I enjoyed both the first book and this follow-up. If there is to be a third installment I would gladly buy it as well.

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