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First Published:
Dec 2002, 464 pages
Paperback:
Jan 2004, 448 pages
Cussler and NUMA (The National Underwater & Marine Agency) demonstrate again that truth can be stranger than fiction. True adventures told in this volume include the 2000 raising of the Confederate submarine Hunley, The Mary Celeste, the Carpathia, and the L'Oiseau Blanc, the airplane that almost beat The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic before disappearing.
For twenty-three years, Clive Cussler's NUMA®the National Underwater & Marine Agencyhas scoured the rivers and seas in search of lost ships of historic significance. His teams have been inundated by tidal waves, and beset by the vagaries of man and nature, but the resultsand the stories behind themhave often been dramatic: The 2000 raising of the Confederate submarine Hunley made national headlines.
Here, then, are more true tales of seaand landgoing adventures, as Cussler and his crews set out to track down history. The famous ghost ship Mary Celeste, found floating off the Azores in 1872 with no one on board; the Carpathia, the ship that rescued the Titanic survivors and was itself lost to U-boats six years later; L'Oiseau Blanc, the airplane that almost beat The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic before disappearing in the Maine woodsall these, plus steamboats, ironclads, a seventeenth-century flagship, a certain famous PT boat, and even a dirigible, prove tantalizing targets as Cussler demonstrates again that truth can be "at least as fun, and sometimes stranger, than fiction" (Men's Journal).
PART ONE
L'Aimable
The Father of Waters
1684-1685
"THE FOOL!" RENE-ROBERT CAVELIER DE LA SALLE SHOUTED as he stood helpless on the desolate shore and watched his flagship, L'Aimable, veer out of the buoyed channel toward what he knew was certain destruction.
Earlier, over the protests of L'Aimable's captain, Rene Aigron, La Salle had ordered the 300-ton French ship loaded with stores for a new colony to sail across the bar of Cavallo Pass into Matagorda Bay--a body of water that would become part of the state of Texas 157 years later.
Aigron stared menacingly, demanded La Salle draw up a document absolving him of any responsibility, and insisted the explorer sign it. La Salle, still recovering from an illness, was too weary to argue the point and reluctantly agreed to the terms. Fearing the worst, Aigron then transferred his personal possessions to a smaller ship, Joly, which had already crossed the bar and was safely anchored inside.
Now, with the sails unfurled and ...
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