The Sea Hunters 2 Cussler, Clive Biographies and Memoirs,Books To Films,Limited Signed Editions,Nonfiction,Signed Books less than $30

A handsome and scarce Limited Presentation Copy signed by the author on the limitation page. Presumed to be one of 600 Limited Numbered copies. Nonfiction. In fine dark tan material (leatherette, not determined), with marbled boards, the book is in fine unread condition. Housed in a matching dark tan slipcase that is also in fine condition. Bestselling novelist Cussler and Dirgo are both members of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, a group financed principally by the income from Cussler's books and dedicated to finding famous marine wrecks. Here they chronicle searches for such ships as the Lexington, lost in Long Island Sound in 1840; the Zavala, a ship of the Republic of Texas Navy that ran aground in the Galveston Ship Channel in 1842 and is now under a parking lot; several vessels from the Civil War era, including the Hunley, the first submarine to sink a warship, and her victim, the Housatonic; and the Leopoldville, a troop transport torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1944 with the loss of 800 GIs, a disaster the U.S., Britain and Belgium all tried to cover up. The book includes maps and black & white photographs. In a 1995 interview with "Naval History" titled, "If It's Lost," Cussler discussed his approach to the preservation of archaeological sites and artifacts: "The agency tries to find lost ships of historic significance before they re gone forever. When we find one, we turn over all our records and walk away. People who come by my house are amazed, because I don t have one artifact just a couple of ship models. On only two or three occasions, when we worked with particular sites, did we bring up artifacts. In Virginia, I remember when we identified the Civil War ship Cumberland even brought up the ship s bell and identified the Florida from other objects we brought up. We were supposed to split the cost of preservation with the state, so we soaked all the artifacts in kiddie pools, locked in warehouses. Suddenly, the state came and said, "Sorry, we re too tied up with the York River. We don t have the money to spend, so you ll have to throw the artifacts back." I said, "You re crazy." So the College of William and Mary took over the preservation work."