'The Sea Hunters' describes Cussler's discovery of Hunley submarine

Just the other day, I finished reading a fun and interesting book called “The Sea Hunters: True Adventures with Famous Shipwrecks” by best-selling author Clive Cussler and Craig Dirgo.

Originally published in 1996 by Simon & Schuster, this nonfiction book is a must-read for anyone interested in diving, shipwrecks and underwater archeology.

Cussler is best known for his wildly successful Dirk Pitt series of adventure books, and in “The Sea Hunters” he explains how he used royalties from his Dirk Pitt novels to help fund numerous (and expensive) searches for lost shipwrecks around the world. Most of these searches were carried out by Cussler’s nonprofit, the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA).

“The Sea Hunters” documents NUMA’s search for nine famous shipwrecks, including the CSS Arkansas; the USS Carondelet; the USS Cumberland; the CSS Florida; the Confederate submarine, H.L. Hunley; the troop transport, SS Leopoldville; the steamboat, Lexington; the HMS Pathfinder; U-20; U-21; and the Republic of Texas Navy ship, Zavala. Cussler describe the search for each of these vessels in a style that many of his readers will recognize, and he does an entertaining job of dramatizing the final moments for many of these ships and their crews.

The book also includes an interesting discussion of NUMA’s search for a locomotive that was wrecked after a trestle became destroyed in a flood as well as a list of 64 wreck sites documented by NUMA.

Readers in Alabama will also likely be especially interested in portions of the book that discuss the exploits of naval ships in Mobile Bay as well as the details regarding the H.L. Hunley. In fact, NUMA’s greatest achievement is arguably the discovery of the Hunley shipwreck site.

The Hunley, which was constructed in Mobile, Ala. and named after builder Horace Lawson Hunley, was a Confederate submarine that would go down in the history books as the first military sub to sink an enemy warship. On Feb. 17, 1864, the Hunley used a torpedoed to sink the USS Housatonic off the coast of Charleston, S.C. Before the Hunley could return to friendly shores, it sank for unknown reasons.

Its final resting place remained unknown for over a century, that is, until Cussler and his NUMA crew found it in April 1995. The details of the Hunley’s discovery are fascinating.

I enjoyed “The Sea Hunters,” and I was especially interested to learn that Cussler published a sequel to the book in 2002 called “The Sea Hunters II: Diving the World’s Seas for Famous Shipwrecks.” Famous shipwrecks described in that book include the USS Akron; Samuel Morey’s boat, Aunt Sally; the RMS Carpathia; the steamboat, General Slocum; the Keokuk; the lost ship, L’Aimable; the Ironclad Louisiana; the Ironclad, Manassa; the Mary Celeste; the USS Mississippi; the steamboat, New Orleans; the Patapsco; PT-109; the SS Waratah; and the Weehawken.

In the end, how many of you have read Cussler’s “The Sea Hunters”? What did you think about it? What was your favorite part and why? Let us know in the comments section below.