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A great coffee table book I've owned for a few years, this book is full of interesting facts that are put together in an interesting way. Not a hard-core history book by any means. Not really in-depth, either. Pretty pictures make it good for all ages of reading.
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Shortly after this book was first published, I attended the London Dive Show and I recall how I had to convince the lady selling this particular book to let me purchase her last "counter" copy because she had sold out within a couple of hours of opening on that first day.
This book is a collection of shipwreck and treasure stories from ancient and modern times shown in the context of where they are in the world. Measuring 12½ in x 10¼ in (315mm x 260mm), it is packed with almost 200 pages of exactly the sort of information every diver wants to read. In short, this hardback book is a steal at £20.
A quick glance at the contents page reveals how the author uses the word world-wide theme of the book to good effect with chapters on; Bronze Age to Byzantium, Vikings, Chinese Junks, Levantine Trade, Portuguese Carracks, Armada, Spanish Plate Fleets, Pirates and Privateers, East Indiamen, Revolution, Great Collectors, Gold Rush, Mail Ships and Liners and ships from WW2. These are followed by carefully detailed Annexes which show; The relevant maps, shipwreck listings, glossary, bibliography, index and acknowledgements.
The treasures are enough to make any mouth water - and they are not yet all found. Altogether I consider this to be a scholarly piece of work - and no Divers bookshelf can be considered complete without a copy.
NM
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Gave this to my grand nephew. He loves it. Everybody has something special they are interested in. Shipwrecks are his special interest. He designed a school project from it and won an award.
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This book lives up to publisher Dorling Kindersley's well deserved reputation for turning any topic into eye candy. And few topics have the allure of treasure wrecks, so you can count on this book to appeal to even a tough audience.
The editors make you think, too. Many thousands of people have lived in "pirate towns" like Port Royal, yet only a comparative handful of ships were lost to pirates. And not more than a few hundred people were hung for piracy. What were all those people doing risking their lives? Recovering treasure from the King's wrecks was grand theft. It may have been a felony punishable by death in the 1600s, but few people expected to get caught and none of them went into it with the intention of killing people for money.
There's an odd picture on page 60 of a diver pouring mercury out of a flask under water. Don't be surprised that big fish in the Caribbean are full of the stuff. Mercury was used to refine gold and silver ore. The richest mines in Europe were in Almaden, Spain. The treasure galleons with their holds designed for heavy metals brought were no one-way vessels. They brought mercury to the New World, usually something over 100 quintals, or 10 to 15 tons. Iron tools may have tripled or quadrupled this amount. These 600 to 1000 ton ships looked precariously balanced but carried 50 tons or more of heavy metal in their bottom holds on every voyage.
Nigel Pickford writes informatively from his own treasure trove of information. His father worked for London insurers as a recoverer of lost cargoes, so he grew up in a family uncommonly well versed on this topic. "My father would never have used the phrase 'treasure hunter' about himself." But he was a pro.Read more ›
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I enjoyed this book very much. Good historical knowledge about shipwrecks. If your interested in treasure hunting, you'll love this books vast information
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