Customer Reviews

Lost on the Ocean Floor: Diving the World's Ghost Ships

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was really disatified with this book. I just can`t really find much good to say about it. The pictures,the few that was in book were more about cannonballs and jewelry that were found on some ships.The author wrote alot about how some ships were built but didn't tell how some of the ship even looked under water or the damage they had taken to sink.In my opinion the sunken ships in the pacific ocean were not covered enough. If you are interested in sunken ships I would avoid this book at all costs.

Whenever I am not actually diving, I spend my entire day immersed in research, research and even more research. I spend a great deal of money on books and have a fine library. Many of those books are quite excellent, other less so and occasionally I get some which are quite poor. I cannot remember, however, the last time I got a book about shipwrecks where I actually learned nothing at all. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I got from this very poor offering from Mr Fine - absolutely nothing. Furthermore, the quality of both paper and photographs are quite abysmal.

According to the nine-line "bio" of this author at the end of the book, John Christopher Fine has all the, qualifications, attributes, experience, ability and even reputation to produce an excellent book about shipwrecks. Seems to me, Mr Fine has decided to rest on his laurels and publish in the expectation of his reputation selling his books.

Perhaps he can tell me where I might get a refund?

NM

Although the sub-title of this book implies that it is about diving, I find that this book is more about the ships themselves, and how they sank than about diving on them. And there seem to be so many books like this one on sunken ships that you have to kind of have to be surprised to see that there are any ships still afloat.

This book pretty much covers the world. It has sunken Roman ships in the Med. Spanish treasure ships bring back gold and silver from the Ne World. Ships from various wars seem to litter the ground in places like Scapa Flow. There is much more coverage of the Atlantic areas than of the Pacific.

Mr. Fine clearly loves the ocean and its collenction of sunken ships. It is clear that he has carefully researched the ships he is writing about. I found the book hard to put down.

Blend an award-winning photojournalist with a scuba diving expertise and you have the elements of an intriguing story in Lost On The Ocean Floor: Diving The World's Ghost Ships. Fine has explored and documented not just a few but many of the sunken fleets of the world for most of his adult life, so Lost On The Ocean Floor showcases the most exciting of his discoveries, not just a few. Science blends with archaeology and drama to create a title which will appeal to general interest readers as much as ocean archaeologists and fellow discoverers.