Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html The Sea Hunters By Clive Cussler Synopsis: A nonfiction work by the creator of Dirk Pitt, this book tells thirteen tales of searches for shipwrecks. The circumstances surrounding each are described in detail along with the searches. This book reads like a novel. Among the shipwrecks are the C.S.S. Hunley, a confederate submarine-the first to sink a ship in battle, The Leopoldville, a troop transport torpedoed by a German u-boat on Christmas eve, 1944 and the discovery of U-20, the german sub that sank the Lucitania in 1915. Dirk Pitt Adventures by Clive Cussler Shock Wave Inca Gold Sahara Dragon Treasure Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html cyclops Deep Six Pacific Vortex Night Probe! Vixen 03 Raise the Titanic! Iceberg The Mediterranean Caper Simon & Schuster SIMON & SCHUSTER Rockefeller Center 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 The events depicted in this book and the people who are portrayed, past and present, were and are real. The historical events, however, although factual, were slightly dramatized and dialogue has been added. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html copyright (c) 1996 by Clive Cussler All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form SIMON & SCHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc. DIRK PITT is a registered trademark of Clive Cussler Designed by Levavi & Levavi Manufactured in the United States Of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cussler, Clive. The sea hunters / Clive Cussler & Craig Dirgop. cm. 1. Shipwrecks. 2. Underwater archeology. 1. Dirgo, Craig. II. Tide. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html G525.C965 1996 910.4'5-dc2O 96-28656 CIP ISBN 0-684-83027-2 Acknowledgments The authors are indebted to Joaquin Saunders, author of The Night Before Christmas; Ray Rodgers, author of Survivors of the Leopoldville Disaster, and those men of the 66dl Panther Division who survived the terrible tragedy off Cherbourg, France, on the evening of December 24, 1944, for their stories of horror and heroism. It is truly an event that should not be swept away into the mist of time. PHOTO CREDITS All photos not otherwise credited are the author's. Nicholas Dean, Edgecomb, MA: 8 Denver Public Library, Western History Department: 23 Imperial War Museum, London, England: 24, 25, 26 Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Mariners' Museum, Newport News, VA: 1, 2, 28 Bill Shea, Lincoln, MA: 31 U.S. Naval Historical Center: 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Ralph Wilbanks, Isle of Palms, SC: 20, 22 To the men and women who have supported the National Underwater & Marine Agency from its inception. Through the tough times and the fun times, their loyalty has remained solid and enduring. This is merely a partial record of their remarkable achievements. Without their efforts, over sixty shipwrecks of historic significance might still lie on the bottoms of the seas and rivers, ignored and forgotten for all time. Some ships are gone, dredged out of existence or buried under modern construction. Some are still intact. Now that the way has been shown, we leave it to future generations to recover the knowledge and artifacts that remain of our maritime heritage. And to my wife, Barbara, for her enduring patience, and my children, Teri, Dirk, and Dana, who grew up with a father who never grew up. Contents NUMA Advisory Board of Trustees 14 Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Introduction 15 PART 1 The Steamboat Lexington Through by Daylight- 1840 35 II Enter NUMA- 1983 54 PART 2 The Republic of Texas Navy Ship Zavala I A Sweet-Handling Ship1836-1842 63 II Ship in a Parking Lot- 1986 70 PART 3 U.S.S. Cumberland and C.S.S. Florida 1 Her Flag Still Flying- 1862 79 II She-Devil of the Confederacy-1864 91 III Where Did They Go?- 1980 106 IV Back with a Vengeance- 1982 112 Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html PART 4 PART 10 C.S.S. Arkansas They Can't Be Found if You Don't Look I The Gauntlet-1862 121 Postscript 327 II Go Down to the Levee-1981144 Current List of National Underwater & Marine Agency PART 5 Shipwreck Surveys and Discoveries 335 U.S.S. Carondelet Foreign Ships Discovered and Surveyed 343 Additional Sites Surveyed 347 1 The River War- 1 62 153 II Some Days You Can't Win-1982 168 Index 349 PART 6 The Confederate Submarine Hunley I The Little Sub That Could ... and Did-1864 178 Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html H The Toughest Find of All- 1980 197 III Once More with Feeling- 1981 206 IV If at First You Don't Succeed- 1994 212 PART 7 The Lost Locomotive of Kiowa Creek I Journey to Nowhere-1878 223 II One That Got Away-1989 236 PART 8 H.M.S. Pathfinder, U-21, and U-20 I Death from the Depths- 1914 II Down in Eighteen Minutes-1915 259 III I'd Rather Be in Hawaii-1984 272 PART 9 The Troop Transport Leopoldville I Silent Night, Deadly Night1944 II Curses, Foiled Again- 1984 309 NUMA Advisory Board of Trustees I Clive Cussler, Chairman Colonel Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Walter Schob Admiral William Thompson Michael Hogan Eric Schonstedt Commander Donald Walsh Kenhelm Stott, Jr.* Douglas Wheeler Craig Dirgo Robert Esbenson Deceased Wayne Gronquist, President Dana Larson William Shea Dr. Harold Edgerton Clyde Smith Peter Throckmorton Tony Bell* Dirk Cussler Barbara Knight Introduction It's said that Jules Verne wrote Around the World in Eighty Days without ever leaving Paris. He seldom stepped out of the room where he created the most imaginative novels the world has enjoyed. Most fiction authors, when I ask them what interests they have besides writing, look at me like my head is lopsided. They can't believe there are other pursuits in life beyond creating plots and characters, promoting their books, arguing with editors, or demanding better deals from their literary agents. Their lives are entwined around what comes out of their word processors. A reporter who interviewed me several years ago wrote that I "follow Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html the beat of a drummer playing with a marching band in a field on the other side of town." I suppose that's true. Feeding my readers adventure tales based on a devil-may-care character by the name Dirk Pitt is only one chapter of my existence. I'm addicted to the challenge of the search, whether it's for lost shipwrecks, airplanes, steam locomotives, or people. I also collect and restore classic and vintage automobiles. If it's old, I'm into it. There is a piece of me in Dirk Pitt and a slice of him in me. We're both about six feet three. His eyes are greener than mine, and he certainly enthralls the ladies more than I ever did. We have the same taste for adventure, although his escapades are far more extreme than mine. I never raised the Titanic, for example. Nor have I saved the life of the President or found a great hoard of Inca gold at the end of an underground river. I have, however, attempted some crazy things besides tramping through humid backcountry looking for old cannons or being tossed around a small boat during a Force 8 storm while searching for a sunken submarine. Like riding a bicycle over the Rocky Mountains and through the deserts to California when I turned fifty, taking the stick of a glider at fifty-five, and bungee jumping at sixty. I'm thinking of sky diving on my sixty-fifth. How did this attempt to mirror fantasy with life begin? Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Perhaps you remember me. I was the kid in your high school algebra class who stared out the window while the teacher lectured on fractions. I was lost in another time, a million miles away, manning a cannon on John Paul Jones's ship, the Bonhomme Richard, charging up Cemetery Ridge with Pickett's division, or reversing the tide at the Little Big Horn and saving Custer and his 7th Cavalry. When called upon to recite, I could only stare at the floor like an amnesiac and mutter an answer so utterly out of context that the teacher thought I had wandered into her class by mistake. I was lucky growing up when and where I did. Within four blocks of my family's middle-class, 1940s home in Southern California, there were five neighborhood boys my own age who had imaginations as varied as mine. Together, we built treehouses and clubhouses, dug caves, constructed a ship out of scrap wood in a vacant lot, constructed miniature streets and buildings out of mud and wooden molds, and devised ghostly scenes in my father's garage on Halloween. The Little Rascals had nothing on us. Only when five o'clock rolled around did we dash home to Turn on the radio and listen to the adventures of Jack Armstrong, the ' All-American Boy, picturing ourselves slogging through the Congo jungles at his side. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Sea stories had a particular allure to my wandering mind.