Sea Hunters II and NUMA (9th June)

The book that has got me hooked on completely at present is Sea Hunters II. Now you might be saying isn't it rather like watching the sequel first?¡¦. I admit that it is so but I was suffering from an overdose of Agatha Christie mysteries (though I am really fond of them) so I was hunting for some other kind of thrilling books. From the name I thought this must be about some long lost treasure at the bottom of the sea but it turned out to be about the hunt for sunken boats. And this is real - not fiction.

That brings us to NUMA - The National Underwater and Marine Agency that was founded in 1979. Dr Clive Cussler who is the chairman of NUMA is one of the authors of this book. NUMA undertakes missions for discovery and then preservation of ships of historical importance to the USA. This book talks about the hunt for the ghost ship Mary Celeste and RMS Carpathia (which picked up survivors from Titanic) among others.

Time for another confession :-) much of this is 'uncharted waters' for me. I still can't remember whether starboard side is the right side or Portside is the right side. I haven't seen an anchor except for in movies (most probably Titanic). And I won't be able to tell a magnetometer from an odometer if you keep both instruments side by side :-) But it is intriguing to read as for each ship( or steamboat or whatever it is that floats on water) the book first talks about how it sank and then about how its discovery was attempted.

Needless to say, once I am done with the sequel I am going back to the book that started it all :-)