The Shipwreck Hunter

April 15, 2018
In his first book to be published in the United States, famed shipwreck hunter Mearns (The Search for the Sydney, 2009, etc.) provides an engrossing collection of his most exciting undersea finds.With stories that would befit an adventure novel, the author recounts seven of his dramatic shipwreck journeys, including a number of famed World War II ships (like the HMS Hood and the HMAS Sydney), a 15th-century vessel belonging to Vasco da Gama's fleet, and commercial freighters featuring sordid histories straight out of a soap opera. Beyond the stories of the ships themselves, Mearns, a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and the Explorers Club, shows how the life of a shipwreck hunter is itself dramatic and fraught with risk. "I have experienced," he writes, "just about every emotion imaginable for a person in charge of such costly and technically complex adventures....Searching for shipwrecks is basically an all-or-nothing proposition, where you either find what you are looking for or go home empty-handed." The chapters are only loosely connected, with little overarching narrative arc, but the author does well to keep his tales highly entertaining and understandable for lay readers. Mearns doesn't ignore the necessary technical detail, but he smartly keeps it to a minimum. At the end, the author includes two ships he'd yet like to find, but one of them--the USS Indianapolis--was located in 2017. While Robert Ballard's 1985 discovery of the Titanic remains the most famous individual shipwreck find (and therefore made him the most famous hunter as well), Mearns deserves a spot in the upper echelon of deep-sea explorers, not only for his work of finding lost wrecks, but also for his continued efforts, along with the oceanographic community, to map the entire ocean floor.A touch overlong but required reading for any maritime enthusiast.

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April 16, 2018
Shipwreck hunter Mearns provides an at times riveting, at times ponderous collection of his experiences planning, funding, and executing successful searches for sunken ships. Mearns succinctly summarizes the historical contexts for each of the ships he locates, from his early search for the Lucona (which sank in 1977) to determine the innocence or guilt of the owner, accused of insurance fraud and murder, to his explorations of historically important ships lost in war, such as the HMS Hood and HMAS Sydney. The book is at its most exciting in recounting the search for the ships and relating the events that led to their sinkings, including the heroic efforts of crews to protect their ships and ensure the safety of all on board; one second mate of a hospital ship managed to rope together 50 survivors on various pieces of debris to create a “survival island.” The narrative flounders, though, when the focus shifts to the complex efforts and political maneuvers needed to secure funding from governmental bodies and the BBC to document his explorations. Mearns’s unique perspective on the art and science of locating shipwrecks makes for fascinating reading. Agent: George Lucas, InkWell Management.

May 15, 2018

Underwater British explorer Mearns presents an engaging work that outlines a number of his key discoveries. Each chapter deals with one of the ships the author sought to find. The introduction shares how his fondness for the sea led him to advanced studies in marine geology and ultimately to salvage operations using sonar equipment. Mearns goes on to describe finds from his various searches, including debris from the Space Shuttle Challenger to war battleships to one of the vessels from Vasco de Gama's armada that sunk in 1503. Mearns intertwines the technical aspects of his work with the human narrative surrounding these wrecks in a compelling manner. His excitement about what we're yet to discover in the oceans is infective. Most sobering are his descriptions of uncovering the causes for why vessels sank and how these answers provide families with long-awaited closure. VERDICT Mearns is an able storyteller whose life's work makes for an absorbing read.--Brian Renvall, Mesalands Community Coll., Tucumcari, NM

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