The popular image of sharks is of a dorsal fin cleaving the surface as it rushes to its next kill, but this is a limited caricature. There are over 500 species to choose from, most of whom are far more frightened of humans than vice versa. In this beautiful book, diving veteran John Bantin recounts many tales of his diving with several species of sharks and other marine animals over the last 4 decades. Accompanied by his own stunning photography, the captivating, spectacular and sometimes ...

This collection of true diving stories makes for compelling reading for all divers. Enjoy classic tales of this extreme watersport, from thrilling wreck discoveries to encounters with the bizarre and the beautiful. There are stories of death and disaster, as well as bravery and triumph. Tales of the exciting and the extreme rub shoulders with more poetic pieces about the people and places that make up the folklore of this fascinating sport. The author's global tour takes you everywhere, fr...

Whether you have been diving for years or just thinking about sticking your fins in the water for the first time, The First 130 Feet: True Stories from the Dive Deck will take you on underwater adventures you wont ever forget. Journey with author Ken Barrick as he explores hidden underwater worlds, from the Inner Harbor of Baltimore to Australias Coral Sea. This collection of short stories entertains, educates, and inspires. Experience the terror of being face-to-face with a fourteen-foot ...

"Dark Descent makes the reader a vicarious participant in what is a very extreme sport."—Philadelphia InquirerOn May 29, 1914, the passenger liner Empress of Ireland was struck by the freighter Storstad and sank in fifteen minutes, taking more than 1,000 victims with her. It remains one of the largest losses of life ever in a maritime accident.At more than a hundred feet deep in the frigid Gulf of St. Lawrence, diving the Empr...

From the best-selling author of four classic UK diving books, comes The Darkness Below - a collection of absorbing adventures gained from a lifetime in diving. As one of the UK's leading Technical Divers, Rod takes the reader on a spellbinding and gripping journey, from first beginnings as a novice scuba diver. Told in intimate detail with a beguiling sense of self-deprecating humour, he recounts epic dives on some of the most fabulous shipwrecks around the world. Terrifying first explorat...

Daniel Lenihan's Submerged shares thrilling true stories of underwater expeditions in "a gripping saga of archeological exploration" (#1 New York Times –bestselling author Clive Cussler).Experience a kaleidoscope of real-life underwater missions as revealed by the Founder and Chief of U.S. National Park Service Submerged Cultural Resources Unit (SCRU), ranging from ancient ruin...

An in-depth look at the danger of diving the Andrea Doria, the "Everest" of deep-sea diving, by an award-winning journalist and photographer.On a foggy July evening in 1956, the Italian cruise liner Andrea Doria, bound for New York, was struck broadside by another vessel. In eleven hours, she would sink nearly 250 feet to the murky Atlantic Ocean floor. Thanks to a daring rescue operation, only fifty-one of more than 1,700 people died in the trage...

In this fast-paced true account of people who have risked their lives to go where no modern man has ever gone, author Robert F. Burgess whose non-fiction books take readers from sinkings, salvages and shipwrecks into the world’s most dangerous underwater caverns, now describes true accounts of divers who one minute are enjoying the modern day world and moments later they plunge down through the water barrier into the Past. Literally. So literally that if you are that diver, you can touch t...

The Royal Navy's dramatic race to save the crew of a trapped Russian submarine.5 August 2005. On a secret mission to an underwater military installation 30 miles off the coast of Kamchatka, Russian Navy submersible AS-28 ran into a web of cables and stuck fast. With 600 feet of freezing water above them, there was no escape for the seven crew. Trapped in a titanium tomb, all they could do was wait as their air supply slowly dwindled.For more than 24 hours t...

One diver, after a seemingly brief period below the surface, discovers that his gas supply has run perilously low. Another, paralyzed, bobs helplessly on the surface, and when a poorly trained divemaster attempts rescue, things go from bad to worse. Two other divers, fascinated by the bountiful undersea life of the Caribbean, fail to notice that a powerful current is sweeping them rapidly away from their unattended boat.These are just a few of the true stories you’ll find ...

Two members of a team who descended into the Huautla cave complex in Mexico describe their perilous and deadly trek into one of the world's deepest caves.The Huautla in Mexico is the deepest cave in the Western Hemisphere, possibly the world. Shafts reach skyscraper-depths, caverns are stadium-sized, and sudden floods can drown divers in an instant.With a two-decade obsession, William Stone and his 44-member team entered the sinkhole at Sotano de San August...

A "superb account" of the disastrous loss of a Russian submarine off the nation's northern coast and its repercussions ( Publishers Weekly).On August 12, 2000, during one of the most important military demonstrations in post-Soviet history, an enormous explosion sank Russia's most prized nuclear submarine, the Kursk. When Vladmir Putin's men failed to rescue the 118 young submariners trapped under the icy Barents Sea and refused timely help from "f...