Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #174201 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-28
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Synopsis
This book explores the fascinating world of shipwrecks and wreck diving. Their great historical interest aside, shipwrecks shelter diverse communities of marine creatures and fabulous coral growths. Wreck dives are also useful for building diving skills, affording valuable practice in negotiating challenging or confined settings. The selection of dives includes airplanes as well as ships.Coverage is organized regionally by ocean, with the dives grouped according to the territorial waters in which they lie. There are uncounted thousands of wrecks around the world. The sites selected for this book are the 'best of the best'. The book offers a full spectrum of dives, from shallow dives on artificial reefs (formed by sinking old or decommissioned ships) to spectacular descents, to major wrecks such as the Lusitania, the Andrea Doria and the ship 'graveyards' of Scapa Flow and Truk Lagoon.

Customer Reviews

Very little book for a great deal of money.
It is "because" I am currently studying the world's greatest diveable shipwrecks that I purchased this item in the full expectation of learning something - at least something, somewhere. Truth is, this book is appalling and contains the absolute minimum amount of information about the various destinations and the wrecks found therein.

A large format book, both the content and the way in which that content is laid out, leave much to be desired. The 5 main headings are; Atlantic Ocean (Canada, USA, Bermuda, Bahamas and the Caribbean, Great Britain and Republic of Ireland and South Africa), Mediterranean (Malta and Cyprus), Red Sea (Egypt and Sudan), Indian Ocean (Australia - West Coast), Pacific Ocean (Malaysia, Philippines, Chuuk, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, PNG, Australia - East Coast, New Zealand and finally Canada - Vancouver Islands. As you can see, therefore, the book starts and finishes with Canada and the two coasts of Australia are also separated by several pages.

As far as the content is concerned, it really is pretty diabolical. The Introduction seeks to give the reader a grounding in wreck diving in such a way as to make any seasoned diver wonder whether the editor has ever seen a shipwreck - underwater that is. When it comes to those all-important details of individual ships, however, they are simply not there. There is no photograph from the Andrea Doria and her entire story is confined to less than two columns of text. The Proteus and U 352 each get less than a half column each

The introduction to Bermuda comprises 56 words and one of the ships is described in just 76 words. These, incidentally are examples of what the reader is likely to expect throughout the book.

England is represented by the James, Eagan Layne, HMS Scylla, Salsette and Kyarra which combine to fill less than two pages of text between them. And so it goes on.

The section on Sudan commences with an excellent full page photo on the left hand page, another briefest possible introduction - double spaced and stretched out to fill half the facing page, followed by yet again minimum possible details of two wrecks plus Conshelf II all covered in just two pages (Conshelf II as one of the world' greatest shipwrecks? I don't think so!).

I could go on, but the point is made. Not only are many of the world's greatest diveable shipwrecks "not even mentioned" in this tome, the book itself does not even provide a single photograph from each of those wrecks which are covered and there is virtually nothing to be learned about any shipwreck in this book in any event.

Some of the images may be stunning, but they appear to have been chosen to fool the reader into thinking this might be a great product. Believe me - IT IS NOT!

As for me, I am seeking a refund.

NM