Product Description

Adventure nonfiction at its best by the co-author, with Gene Hackman, of Wake of the Perdido Star.

Submerged is Daniel Lenihan's remarkable story of 25 years as founder and head of the Submerged Cultural Resource Unit (SCRU)—ranging from ancient ruins covered by reservoirs in the desert Southwest to a World War II submarine off the Alaskan coast; from the Isle Royale shipwrecks in the frigid Lake Superior to the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor; from the HL Hunley, the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship, in Charleston Harbor to the ships sunk by atomic bombs at Bikini Atoll, and much more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #364226 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Recounting his 25 years as founder and director of the Submerged Cultural Resources Unit the underwater archeological team of the National Park Service Lenihan (Wake of the Perdido Star, with Gene Hackman) offers an entertaining mix of maritime history, memoir and adventure tale. Started in 1975 to keep fortune hunters from looting national water parks for sunken treasure and damaging vital historical material, Lenihan's unit has explored the wondrous (and deadly) sinkholes in Florida and Mexico; studied shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, Micronesia and places in between; and investigated the remains of the USS Arizona and the ships sunk by nuclear bombs near Bikini atoll. While the author is an authority on sea archeology and naval history, he and his divers are also underwater cowboys and cowgirls, thrilling in the dangers of their extreme sport. A sharp, engaging writer, Lenihan describes the terrifying aspects of his work the bone-chilling cold, impenetrable clouds of silt and the notorious bends with a good dose of black humor. (A surreal trip through an old impoundment house submerged in the reservoir of Amistad Dam in Texas is especially haunting.) Fast paced, full of amiable characters, the book will appeal to divers, maritime enthusiasts and anyone fond of nautical hijinks and swaggering seafarers. Photos and maps not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
A gripping saga of archeological exploration of famous shipwrecks. An engaging read of true adventure in the depths. -- Clive Cussler

A sharp, engaging writer, Lenihan describes the terrifying aspects of his work with a good dose of black humor. -- Publishers Weekly

An edge-of-your-seat story that succinctly illustrates the danger of wreck exploration. -- The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC

Every water-oriented reader will be enthralled by Lenihan's underwater world. -- Maine Harbor

About the Author
Daniel Lenihan, winner of the George Melendez Wright Award for Excellence, has been diving as a park ranger and archeologist for the National Park Service since 1972, and founded the Submerged Cultural Resources Unit (SCRU) in 1976 before being appointed the first chief in 1980. Over the last 25 years, Lenihan and the SCRU team have been the subject of national media stories and many TV documentaries on CBS, ABC, BBC, CNN, PBS, The Discovery and History Channels, and National Geographic. He has written frequently for Natural History and American History, and co-authored, with Gene Hackman, the well-received sea adventure novel Wake of the Perdido Star and the forthcoming novel, Vermilion. A native New Yorker, he lives with his family in Santa Fe, NM.

Customer Reviews

The Sometimes Extreme Adventures Of An Underwater Ranger
Submerged by Daniel Lenihan is an entertaining book by a National Park Service employee who truly and enthusiastically loved his job - doing recon dives on the underwater treasures owned by the American public. The subtitle of the book - 'Adventures Of America's Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team' - may be somewhat misleading, since Lenihan's adventures are usually tales of the initial dives to evaluate an underwater resource for future recreational divers and archeologists who will follow in his team's wake. This is not a book about the day to day details of underwater archeology, and if you buy it with that in mind, you may be disappointed. That said, Lenihan's tales about the founding and early adventures of SCRU [Submerged Cultural Resources Unit] are fun to read and Lenihan's enthusiasm is catching. It is obvious that Lenihan has a dislike for private treasure seekers and if you don't share his opinion, you may not want to read this book. If you have an interest in diving, sunken ships, the preservation of cultural resources, the National Park Service, or just enjoy rousing good tales of underwater adventure, I can definitely recommend Submerged.

Historical Diving
I realy enjoyed Submerged. I found my self not being able to put the book down. Lenihan explains the importance of saving our submereged historical artifacts as well as those of other nations. I am a History Major as well as a Diver. This book has both of the two worlds. I would recomend this book to anyone interested in diving or history.

Enjoyable adventure
I think people of any age who enjoy adventure writing or history will like this book, which recounts the tales of a National Park ranger/diver. His job, along with his team, for more than twenty years, was to map underwater wrecks and preserve the sites for exploration by future divers. Along the way, he seems to have had a really good time. There is an interesting story in each chapter.

I am planning to give the book as a graduation gift to my nephew as I think he will enjoy, as I did, the stories about the joys and mortal perils of cave-diving in Florida, mapping wrecks in the Great Lakes in body-chilling 34-degree water, and close encounters with the slow moving - - but potentially deadly - - lion fish in Micronesia.

I also enjoyed chapters that show the author's awareness of the benefits and drawbacks of age in a young person's sport. I haven't gone diving in the English Channel - - 170 feet deep - - to explore a confederate wreck (the Alabama, which sank off Cherbourg, France, in 1864), but I could identify with the author when he realizes that his eyesight isn't, umm, quite as good as it used to be:

"As the dive progressed, however, I found myself coming face to face with my own aging process. At depth, I usually enjoyed the advantage that experience grants older divers. I could feel smug as I watched younger and stronger men make those myriad little judgment mistakes to which I am not as prone - having already made most of them myself during a quarter century of mucking about in deep water. Depth was, in a sense, the great equalizer. Then, without breaking our pace over the bottom, I reflexively reached for my gauge console and brought it to my face for a routine check of elapsed time and remaining air pressure. I couldn't read it."

By the way, the author copes with this difficulty on the next dive (magnifying glass inside the goggles).

Also, if you are browsing through the book, I recommend reading the chapter about diving at the site of the USS Arizona. The author, at first trying to keep his distance, gradually comes to terms with his feelings about the ship and the thousand or so young men who lost their lives on one bright day in Pearl Harbor.