Adventures of a Sea Hunter

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Adventures of a Sea Hunter Page 23

by James P. Delgado


  Constance “Connie” Perham, founder and curator of the New Almaden Museum, took me in as a fifty-cent-per-hour assistant at age fourteen and taught me that collecting the past meant nothing unless you could share it with others and make it relevant and exciting for them.

  Ted Hinckley convinced my parents to send their precocious child not to the local community college but to university.

  Tom Mulhern and Gordon Chappell of the Western Regional Office of the National Park Service, with help from Roger Kelly and Robert Cox, taught me about nominating historical resources to the National Register of Historic Places and about cultural resources management.

  Allen Pastron let me join his crew at the bottom of a deep pit that had just reached the top of the hull of William Gray. That dig in 1979 lured me with the siren song of the sea, and the drama of a lost and buried ship now fills my archeologist’s soul. My work with Allen continues and remains my touchstone.

  Doug Nadeau, Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s first chief of the Division of Resource Management and Planning, was the best boss that I’ve ever had the privilege to work for.

  No-nonsense master diver Lawrence “Dutch” Bowen often said while training me, “There are bold divers, and there are old divers. There are no old bold divers.” Through the years, whenever I make some mistake underwater and nearly kill myself, Dutch’s basic training comes back to mind to save the day.

  Dan Lenihan and Larry Murphy of the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center Unit taught me how to dive wrecks and how to “do” underwater archeology. Their philosophical discussions over the role of anthropology in underwater and maritime archeology, as well as a strong preservationist approach to saving wrecks from the ravages of treasure hunters, also formed a solid core in my education.

  William N. “Bill” Still and Gordon P. Watts, the founders of the Program in Maritime History and Underwater Research at East Carolina University.

  Dave Burley, Chairman of the Department of Archeology at Simon Eraser University, picked up where Still and Watts left off to show me what else I lacked in the quest to finish school and get that Ph.D.

  George Belcher introduced me to the infamous Somers, and later the beauty and history of Vietnam and its people. He exemplifies the concept of cool as an international man of mystery.

  Edwin C. “Ed” Bearss, Chief Historian of the National Park Service, assigned me to be Project Historian on the USS Monitor and then hired me to head up the federal maritime preservation program as the first maritime historian for the National Park Service.

  Val Casselton and Chris Rose, my editors at the Vancouver Sun, encourage and support my journalistic forays.

  Tom Beasley and his successors as President of the Board of the Vancouver Maritime Museum took the risk in hiring a non-museum-trained bureaucrat. Through the years, they’ve helped me move along the path of museum manager and interpreter while giving me latitude to continue being an archeologist and sea hunter.

  Werner Zehnder, Mike McDowell, Scott Fitzsimmons, Anatoly Sagalevitch and Evgeny Chernaiev introduced me to Titanic. Thanks to Werner and Scott, other great world adventures followed aboard Zegrahm’s vessels.

  Monte Markham taught me how to act on television.

  John Davis, Clive Cussler, Mike Fletcher, Warren Fletcher, Marc Pike and John Rosborough, are my Sea Hunters family: we’ve shared many adventures and learned much in our quest for famous shipwrecks.

  I’d also like to thank Jim Adams, Catherine “Kitty” Agegian, Christian Ahlstro m, David Aiken, the late Raymond Aker, Mike Anderson, Michele Aubry, Fabio Amaral, Santiago Anako, Marianne Babal, Dan Bailey, Ken Ballance, Robert D. Ballard, Carole Bartholemeaux, George Bass, the late Edward L. Beach, Judith Hudson Beattie, Owen Beattie, Lan Huang Belcher, Robert Bennett, Howard Bennink, Carlos Fitzgerald Bernal, J. Peter Bernhardt, Kathy Bequette, Nancy Binnie, Kathy Blackburn, Len Blix, Lisa Bower, Rowland T. Bowers, John Brooks, Greg Brown, John “Alan” Brown, Dave Buller, the late Charles Burdick, Burl Burlingame, Susan Buss, Stephen Canright, Nuna Cass, Bill Caswell, Robert J. Chandler, Patrick Christopher, J. Candace Clifford, Wendy Coble, Bob Cox, Todd Croteau, George Culley, Bill Curtsinger, Fran Day, Nick Dean, Nick Del Cioppo, Hugo Desch, Doug Devine, Bill Dudley, Manuel Cortes Dumas, Rob Edwards, Bill Ehorn, John Eliot, Pilar Luna Erregueren a, Angus Erskine, Richard Everett, Joe Featherston, Franklin Fisher, Leo Fonteyn, John Foster, Kevin Foster, Tom and Ann Freeman, Julie Gallo Lucero, Frank Geisel, Al Giddings, Richard Giles, Larry Gilmore, Gary Goodyear, Andrew Gottsfield, Dick Gould, Bente Jessen Graae, Rachel Grant, Lloyd Graybar, Bob Guertin, Stephen A. Haller, David Hansen, Rich Harned, Edward C. Harris, Thomas L. Hartman, Gene Hattori, Kevin Hay, Kenzo Hayashida, Bob Henderson, Gregg Herken, Torsten Hess, Kent Hiner, Eric Hiner, David Hull, Jack Hunter, Gillian Hutchinson, Steve James, Rick James, Kane Janer, Joy Waldron Jasper, Manami Ikeda, Bill Jardine, Roger Joel, Thompson Johnson, Carolyn Jones, Samuel Kahan, Gary Keep, Chester and Linda King, Kjell Kjaer, Greta Kleiner, Roger Knight, Minna Koivikko, Willi Kramer, John Lachelt, Rebecca Lafontaine, Matias Laitenen, John Lajuan, Fernando Landeta, George Lang, Diego M. Lascano, Richard Lawrence, Thomas N. Layton, David C. Lee, Ben Levy, Santos H. Gomez Leyva, Bill Livingston, Jerry Livingston, Dave McCampbell, Michael McCaughan, Susan MacDonald, John Macdougall & family, Lee McEachern, Leonard McKay, Edward Maddison, Rebecca Magallanes, Jacques Marc, Mitch Marken, Mike Mair, Betty Marshall, Daniel Martinez, Guy Mathias, Cathy Maurer, Martin Mayer, Roger Meade, Tomas Mendizibal, Roy Mengot, Mike Messick, Bebe Midgette, Robert Mikesh, Mark Miller, Norman Y. Mineta, Mike Montieth, Greg Moore, Armando Morales, Elsy Yamina Zaldívar Morales, Torao Mozai, Ginger Muldoon, Larry E. Murphy, Mike Naab, Harry Nashon, Juan Enrique Suarez Peredo Navarette, Dave Nettell, Mark Newton, Johanna Nicholson, Jack Niedenthal, Tomoko Nishizaki, Larry Nordby, Stephen Notarianni, Mitsuhiko Ogawa, Brian O’Neill, Wayne Olival, Jerry Ostermiller, Lt. Commander Alejandro Pen a, the late Ernest Peterkin, Maurice De La Pintiere, Linda Plauner, Peggy Puett, Margaret Purser, Yvonne Munro Pynisky & family, Bill Quinn, Mark Ragan, Fred Rainbow, Dave Rattay, Jeanne Rawlings, Monica Reed, John Reilly, Gil Resindez, Wilma Riklon, Juan Rique, Ash Roach, Rhonda Robichaud, Bill Robison, Omar Lopez Rodriguez, Phil Sceviour, Fred Schultz, the late Doug Scovill, Tamio Shibuta, Linda Shore, Robert Schwemmer, Clyde Smith, Leon Smith, Sheli O. Smith, Richard Stephenson, David Stick, David Stone, Robert Sumrall, Woodrow Swancutt, Hideyuki Tatsuguchi, the late Peter Throckmorton, Brian Ticehurst, Saalamaria Tikkanen, Harald Tresp, Joe Valencic, Carlos Velasquez, John Vandereedt, Alberto M. Vazquez de la Cerda, Christopher C. Wade, Jens-Christian Wagner, Mike Walker, Gary Ware, Jonathan Weisgall, William J. Whalen, James Seeley White, Mark Wilde-Ramsing, Rich Wills, Robert Woody, Wayne Yamaguchi.

  I’d also like to acknowledge the following institutions and agencies: Archeo-Tec; Archives of the Russian Federation, Moscow; Armada de Chile; USS Arizona Memorial; Armada de Mexico; Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley; Bermuda Maritime Museum, Hamilton; Blohm + Voss Gmbh; British Museum, London; British Titanic Society; Bundesarchiv Koblenz; California Historical Society; California Room, San Jose Public Library; Cape Cod National Seashore; Cape Hatteras National Seashore; Castillo del Morro San Pedro de la Roca, Santiago de Cuba; Central Military Archives, Poland; Channel Islands National Park; Columbia River Maritime Museum, Astoria, Oregon; Danish Arctic Station; Danish National Business Archives; Dansk Polarcenter; Deutsches Museum; KZ Dora-Mittelbau Museum; Eco Nova Productions, Ltd., Halifax; Fort Vancouver National Historical Site, Vancouver, Washington; German Naval Academy, Murwik; Glenbow Archives; Golden Gate National Recreational Area; Hakozaki Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan; Historical Archives of Hapag-Lloyd Ag., Hamburg, Germany; Honbutsuji Temple; Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Provincial Archives of Manitoba; Illustrated London News; Institute) Nacional de Antropologia y Historia, Mexico City; Institute Nacional de Cultura, Panama; J. Porter Shaw Library, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park; Knickle’s Studio And Gallery, Lunenburg
; Korean Heritage Library; Specialized Libraries & Archival Collections of the Archival Research Center; Kyushu Okinawa Society for Underwater Archeology; Library of Congress; Marine Base Kunitomi; Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax; Maritime Museum of British Columbia, Victoria; Maritime Museum of Finland; Mariner’s Museum, Newport News, Virginia; Municipality of Juan Fernandez; Museum of Northern History; National Archives, Washington D.C.; National Archives of Canada; National Library of Canada; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; National Museum of Greenland; National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside (Merseyside Maritime Museum); Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C.; New Hampshire Historical Society; Norsk Sjofartsmuseum, Oslo, Norway; Oficina del Conservador de la Ciudad, Santiago de Cuba; Oficina de la Historiador de Santiago, Santiago, Cuba; Peabody Essex Museum; Peary-Macmillan Arctic Museum; Peenemünde Historical Technical Information Center; Perpetual Motion Films; Peter Tamm Collection; Private Collection Bornemann; Private Collection Schmalz; Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Macaskill Collection; Qeqertarsuaq Museum; Royal Canadian Mounted Police Archives; Royal Naval Museum; Royal Navy Submarine Museum Photography Archive; Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon; Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge; Shipwreck Search Vessel Ocean Venture; Southampton City Cultural Services; Takashima Town Board of Education; TV Latina, Havana, Cuba; Titanic Historical Society; Ulster Folk and Transport Museum; Underwater Archeological Society of British Columbia; U.S. Coast Guard; National Motor Lifeboat School, Cape Disappointment, Washington; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; U.S. Naval Institute; University of Liverpool Library; University of Southern California; W.B. and M.H. Chung Library of the Vancouver Maritime Museum; War in the Pacific National Historical Park; Wells Fargo Bank History Department, San Francisco; Wilmington Institute Library; Zegrahm Expeditions.

  My wife, Ann Goodhart, encouraged and supported this book, as she always does. My friend and publisher Scott Mclntyre agreed to do yet another work for me, bless his soul. This book benefited greatly from the skilled editorial hand of Saeko Usukawa, and the design and layout of Peter Cocking and Ingrid Paulson.

  Any errors or omissions are my sole responsibility.

  INDEX

  References to captions and/or images are in italic type.

  A4 rocket, 155–56. See alsoV-2 rocket

  Aasiaat (Greenland), 188, 189

  Ahlström, Christian, 90, 93, 97

  Akademik Mstistlav Keldysh, 62, 64, 69

  Alabama, CSS, 55

  Alexander Hall & Company, 193

  Alligator, USS, 200, 201, 203

  Almirante Oquendo, 147–48, 149

  wreck of, 148

  Alvin, 64–65

  Amaral, Fabio, 44

  Amundsen, Roald, 6

  Anderson, USS, 38

  dives on, 46–47

  Anderson, Ensign Tom, 31–32

  Angkor Wat, 206–7

  Apollo, 122

  Arizona, USS, 22, 23, 24, 46

  dives on, 23–30

  Arkansas, USS, 39

  dives on, 45–46

  Arktisk Station (Greenland), 189, 190

  Asia Maritime Foundation, 207

  Astoria (Oregon), 9

  atomic tests, 35–47

  Avro Arrow, 208

  Ballard, Bob, 33, 63, 65

  Bancroft, George, 55, 56, 57

  bathyscaphes, 66

  bathyspheres, 66

  Beesley, Lawrence, 80, 81, 93

  Belcher, George, 55, 56, 57, 207

  Belcher, Joel, 56

  Ben Franklin, 65

  Bergen-Belsen, 158

  Betsy, HMS, 6

  Bikini Atoll, 6, 35–47

  Bikini Council, 40

  Bille, Clara, 97

  Billy Budd, 6, 52, 56–57

  Bismarck, 179

  Bisset, Second Officer James, 79

  Blandy, Admiral William H., 37, 38, 39

  Blix, Len, 46

  Blohm und Voss, 169

  Boker, Leutnant Arnold, 167

  Boxhall, Fourth Officer Joseph G., 82

  Braampcamps, Gerrit, 92, 97–99

  Bradley, Dr. David, 39–40, 47

  Bride, Harold, 72, 80

  Britannic, RMS, 84

  Brooklyn, USS, 148

  Brooks, John, 46, 56

  Bruegel, 98

  Buchenwald, 156, 157, 158

  Cairo, USS, 199, 201

  California gold rush, 6, 117, 118, 119–22, 128

  Californian, 82

  Cameron, James, 63, 64, 71

  Canaris, Oberleutnant Wilhelm, 168

  Canfield, Gene, 197

  Cape Cod (Massachusetts), 135–36

  Cape Disappointment (Washington), 9, 10, 11

  Carlisle, USS, 38

  Carpathia, RMS, 78, 79, 88

  dives on, 86–88

  rescue of Titanic survivors, 73, 77–83

  search for, 84–86

  sinking of, 83–84

  Carter, Howard, 4

  Cass, Nuna, 131

  Castillo del Morro San Pedro de la Roca. See El Morro

  Castle Bravo, 36

  Castro, Fidel, 147

  Catherine the Great, 91–92, 97, 99, 100

  Cervera y Topete, Pascual, 140–41, 142, 144, 145, 146, 147, 150

  Challenger, 67

  Cham, 206–8

  Charette, George, 143

  Chernaiev, Genya, 67–76

  Chinggis Khan, 103–4

  Cinque Fortes, 176

  Civil War, 55, 198–204

  Clausen, Randolph, 143

  Clay Street Wharf (San Francisco), 116, 117, 121

  Coedyk, 98

  Columbia River Maritime Museum, 15, 20

  Columbus, Christopher, 139

  Cooper, James Fenimore, 51

  Coronel, Battle of, 171

  Cottam, Harold Thomas, 77–78, 79–80

  Cradock, Admiral Sir Christopher, 171

  Cristobal Colon, 150

  Cromwell, Boatwain’s Mate Samuel, 49. 50, 58

  Crozier, Captain F.R.M., 183

  Crusoe, Robinson, 174, 175, 176–77

  Cumberland Bay (Chile), 168–69, 174, 177

  Cussler, Clive, 3–4, 76, 84, 86, 195, 198

  D-Day, 207

  Daiquiri (Cuba), 145, 147

  Dampier, William, 175–76

  Dana, Richard Henry, 175

  Dave’s Dream, 38

  Davis, John, 3, 84, 85–86, 88, 94, 147, 154, 155, 161–62, 163, 164, 179

  Defoe, Daniel, 174, 176

  Deignan, Osborn, 143

  Delgado, Beth, 94

  de Villeroi, Brutus, 200

  DiCaprio, Leonardo, 70

  Discovery Channel, 44

  Disko Bugt (Greenland), 188–89, 190

  Disko Island (Greenland), 188. See also Qeqertarsuaq

  diving bells, 200

  Douw, Gerard, 98

  Dresden, SMS, 167, 169–74

  dives on, 177–81

  model of, 170

  sinking of, 167–69

  Durham, Radioman 3rd Class Clarence, W., 32

  Eales, William, II

  Eco-Nova Productions, 84, 85

  El Morro (Cuba), 139, 142, 143, 145, 147, 151

  Emden, 171, 174

  Erebus, HMS, 183

  Erreguereña, Dr. Pilar Luna, 56, 58, 59

  Esmerelda, 206

  Eulate, Captain Juan Antonio, 148–49

  Evaideen, Elisa, 190

  Evans, Captain Robley “Fighting Bob,” 143–44, 149

  Fairburn, William, 133

  Fajardo, Ensign Luis, 148

  Falkland Islands, Battle of, 172

  Fi 103 rocket, 156. See also V-1 rocket

  Fitzjames, Captain James, 183

  Fitzsimmons, Scott, 67, 68

  Fleet, Frederick, 63–64

  Fletcher, Mike, 3, 84, 85, 86, 94–97, 99, 147, 149, 150–52, 151, 154, 162–64, 163, 173, 177, 189, 192–93, 208

  Fletcher, Warren, 3, 94–97, 147, 149, 150–52, 154, 162–64, 177, 189, 192–93

>   Fort George, 14

  Fort Vancouver, 11, 13

  Fox, 185–86, 188, 193

  dives on, 192–94

  trapped in ice, 184

  wreck of, 190, 191, 191–92

  Frances

  dives on, 136–38

  sinking of, 136

  Franklin, Lady Jane, 184–85

  Franklin, Sir John, 182–87, 194

  Furor, 147

  Gansevoort, Guert, 48, 49, 52

  Gartshore, Dave, 208

  General Harrison, 116, 117, 118–23, 119

  excavation of, 117–18, 123–29, 124

  Gilliam, USS, 38

  dives on, 46

  Gilmore, Larry, 15

  Glasgow, HMS, 168, 169, 171, 172, 174, 179, 180

  Glidden & Williams, 132, 133, 134

  Gneisenau, 171, 172

  Goebbels, Josef, 156

  Goode, “Chappie,” 143

  Graae, Bente Jessen, 190

  Grabowsky, Ensign Leon, 26

  Gracie, Archibald, 82

  graveyard of the Pacific, 9, 11, 15

  H.L. Hunley, 198, 199, 205

  Hakata Bay (Japan), 104, 105, 106, 108, 109

  Hakozaki Shrine (Japan), 102–3, 108–9, 114

  Hall, Sam, 161

  Hansen, Adolph, 130

  Hare, Charles, 122–25

  Harte, Bret, 129

  Hartz Mountains (Germany), 153

  Hayashida, Kenzo, 109, 114, 115

  Hess, Torsten, 154

  Hitler, Adolf, 156

  Hobson, Lieutenant Richmond Pearson, 142–45, 146, 150, 151, 152

  Hobson, Lieutenant William, 182, 186, 187

  Hoi An (Vietnam), 206–7

  Holland, John, 195–96

  Holland 1, 195

  Housatonic, USS, 199

  Huascar, 206

  Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), 11, 13–14, 18, 21, 183, 186

 

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