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Submerged - Adventures of America's Most Elite Underwater Archaeology Team, by Daniel Lenihan
Submerged - Adventures of America's Most Elite Underwater Archaeology Team, by Daniel Lenihan
Sub-titled Adventures of America's Most Elite Underwater Archaeology Team, Submerged is a handsomely presented pot-pourri of archaeological diving around the USA, American-style. It imaginatively describes the adventures of Daniel Lenihan during his 25 years with the Submerged Cultural Resources Unit (SCRU) of the US National Park Service. His mission: to boldly go and survey, map, investigate and protect shipwrecks and sites forming part of America's sunken heritage.
I suspect that not every archaeologist would agree with the operational style. I can imagine certain of them needing the professional services of a paramedic specialising in 'apoplexy archaeologica' after turning just a few of its pages. Nevertheless, each to his own. This is how it is done in the USA, allegedly.
The dive-sites visited are, I suppose inevitably, stunning. As a non-archaeologist, one cannot help being slightly envious of Lenihan's unique career, which takes in sites ranging from Florida caves to ancient ruins submerged in reservoirs, to a WW2 Japanese submarine off Alaska (though perhaps not so much of the near-death experiences in caves, wrecks and submerged buildings).
Of local interest to UK readers will be the chapter on the wreck of the Confederate steamship Alabama, which was sunk during a memorable action in the English Channel (on the French side).
The writing style is colourful, stylish and, dare I say, makes great reading. It reads like a novel, perhaps Mickey Spillane Goes Diving. For instance: 'No one died on this dive. No one was injured ...'; and not many books on underwater archaeology would describe the surfacing of a diver in terms of 'the blanket of tension evaporates like fog in a sunburst'! Jules Verne, eat your heart out!
John Bevan
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Submerged - Adventures of America's Most Elite Underwater Archaeology Team, by Daniel Lenihan (Newmarket Press, ISBN 15570450540). Hardback, 287pp, £16.18
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