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In
The Great Museum of the Sea, archaeologist, museum director, television host, journalist, and award-winning author James Delgado takes the reader on a personal tour of the world of shipwrecks, including many of the more than one hundred lost ships he has personally discovered, investigated, excavated and shared in print and on screen. In these pages, Delgado explains why people care about shipwrecks--and why we have incorporated the concept of a shipwreck, and shipwrecks themselves, into our religions and cultures since the earliest civilizations.
List of contents
- Preface
- Chapter One: Ship Wrecks
- Chapter Two: Shipwrecks as Muses
- Chapter Three: Shipwrecks as Historical Sites, Graves, and Memorials
- Chapter Four: Refugia, Romance, and Aesthetics
- Chapter Five: Economic Values of Shipwrecks
- Chapter Six: Shipwreck Archaeology
- Chapter Seven: Conflicting Values/Conflicting Needs
- Chapter Eight: Shipwreck Issues
- Conclusion: Shipwrecks in the 21st Century
About the author
James P. Delgado is Senior Vice President of SEARCH, Inc., the leading cultural resources firm in the United States. Before that, he was Director of Maritime Heritage for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and President and CEO of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA). He was also host of the National Geographic international television series "The Sea Hunters" featuring best-selling author Clive Cussler. Author of more than 20 books, including
War at Sea and The Curse of the Somers, more than a hundred scholarly and popular magazine articles, and a regular guest in documentary films, he is senior consultant and regularly appears in National Geographic's international television series "Drain the Oceans." For decades he has led diving and excavation teams, most recently at the site of the wreck of the
Clotilda, the last ship known to have brought slaves to the United States.
Summary
An immersive dive into the meaning and mystique of shipwrecks
The sea is the largest museum on earth, with more than a million lost ships resting in its depths. Those shipwrecks date back thousands of years, some from civilizations long vanished, others from more recent history. Some are famous, others obscure and unremembered but each has a story to tell.
In The Great Museum of the Sea, archaeologist, museum director, television host, journalist, and award-winning author James Delgado takes the reader on a personal tour of the world's wrecks, including many of the more than a hundred lost ships he has personally discovered and investigated, including Titanic, USS Arizona, and the slave ship Clotilda. The Great Museum of the Sea vividly explains how and why ships experience catastrophe at sea, and why their remains have captured our imagination for millennia.
Shipwrecks engage us in many ways--we treat them as tombs, but also recover them for museums and memorials, and salvage them for treasure. Authoritative and informed by decades of shipwreck expeditions, Delgado's account offers an insider's perspective, taking the reader into the deep and behind the scenes.
