Customer Reviews

Three Miles Down: A Firsthand Account of Deep Sea Exploration and A Hunt for Sunken World War II Treasure

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If Mr. Hamilton-Paterson wanted to market a character study of salvors, I would have no complaint. However as a "firsthand account of deep sea exploration and a hunt for sunken World War II treasure." he promises more than he even begins to deliver. He begins with a serious handicap of having to use psuedonyms for the vessels which comprise the objects of the search (legal reasons we have to suppose...). But perhaps this book needed to wait to be written properly. Consequently he is able to share little first hand information on how the ships came to the bottom of the sea (often the best part of the read) and even less (other than the interpersonal relationships)of the search itself. I kept turning pages hoping that he would deliver on his promise, but the conclusion proves as unfulfilling as the opening and middle sections of the book. Not that literature is a competitive sport, but in terms of a compelling account of deep sea exploration there are infinitely better books available.

This is not the book I thought I was buying. It contains almost nothing about the actual search for sunken treasure. Instead, as noted by another reviewer, this book is primarily a character study of the people involved in this expedition. It also reads much like a diary of the feelings of the author about the expedition itself. Which is really not what you want to hear about when you expect the book to tell you about the exploits of the salvors digging gold out of wrecks tens of thousands of feet below the surface.

I'm just glad I didn't buy this in hardback.

This book is a must read for anybody who has ever wanted to go on a modern expedition searching for sunken treasure. The characters are real people, accurately described, who react in unexpected ways when confronted with difficult challenges. I know many of the people in this book, and I have been to sea with them. This book brought back many memories. It's also an excellent choice if you are interested in expeditions to the Titanic, since so few books have ever been written about modern expeditions to the Titanic. Again, it's the same players on a different expedition. You will get to know exactly what it's like to be at sea, with plots and subplots going on around the ship, and where everybody has a different agenda. This is the next best thing to being there.

Good hunting!