Please note: 
The books are listed for interest only, and not offered for sale. 

CRIMES OF THE HIGH SEAS
Published by Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1936. 
Hardcover, dust jackt, 280 pages, mono plates.
From the cover blurb:
This is the most exciting and original of all Mr. David Masters' famous books of sea adventure. Based on exhaustive research at Lloyd's, it lifts the veil from a sensational series of plots and crimes, carried out in every case with the intention of defrauding the underwriters. 
This is the first book to describe in detail some of the swindles attempted by Greek and other shipowners during the great shipping slump which shook the world after the war of 1914-18.
Cases of ships deliberately run ashore, of ships burned, of ships sunk so that their owners could claim enormous insurances for vessels worth only a tithe of their insured value, expose the nefarious activities of an underworld of shipping that has hitherto largely escaped attention owing to the complex factors involved.
The description of the various accidents-grim, humorous and trivial -which brought these crimes to light and foiled the designs of their perpetrators forms a record twice as thrilling as any detective story - and absolutely true. [ps]
 
 

DIVERS IN DEEP SEAS.  More Romances of Salvage. Published in 1938 by Eyre & Spottiswoode, London. Hardcover, 284 pages, mono photographs.  Over sixteen chapters, covers the explosion that destroyed the Maine, raising the Brussels, lifting the submarine F4, Diving Adventures, Experiences Grave and Gay. Gay! Thee word was used in a different context seventy years ago. Another excellent book by the master of salvage writing. [ps-no dj]

 

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EPICS OF SALVAGE.  Wartime Feats of the Marine Salvage Men. Cassell & Company, London,  First Edition March 1953.  Hardcover, dustjacket, 264 pages, mono plates. Image above left is probably the USA edition. Image right is th Cassell, London, edition. From the dust jacket fly: When the 13,415-ton S.S. Niagara, on passage from New Zealand to Vancouver, hit a mine thirty miles from Whangarei she took with her to the bottom £2,500,000 worth of gold destined to pay for war material from the United States. The marine salvage men brought up from a record depth £2,360,000. While the battleship H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth and her consort H.M.S. Valiant lay snugly at anchor in Alexandria harbour, Italian frogmen holed both of them with limpet mines which they attached to the bottoms of the ships. The marine salvage men raised both battleships without the Italians becoming aware that they had been successfully sunk. The Cunard liner Georgic, 27,759 tons, was hit by bombs in Suez Bay. Swept by fire and out of ontrol, she crashed into H.M.S. Glenearn and sank. Though she burned for a week, she was refloated by the salvage men and put back into service. The blocking of the Suez Canal by the Germans was a dire peril. Mr. Masters reveals how it was cleared in the nick of time. While the great French liner S.S.Normandie was being fitted as a troop-ship in New York harbour a orkman with a blow-torch set light to 11,000 Kapok life preservers stacked in the grand lounge. Burning from stem to stern she turned over on her side with many cargo doors and port-holes open and sank deep into the mud of the harbour bed. The raising of the Normandie was the greatest salvage feat ever achieved.  It was brilliant and scientific planning and training that enabled a crack diver of H.M.S. Reclaim to dive to 535 feet and regain the world's deep-diving record for the Royal Navy. These are a few of the wonderful achievements which David Masters recounts in his story of the salvage feats of the last war. They make a magnificent tribute to the incredible heroism and ingenuity which saved innumerable ships from almost certain oblivion at a time when shipping losses were one of this country's major problems. The author is well qualified to tell this heroic story, for his interest in marine salvage dates back to the 1914-18 war, after which he wrote the first popular book on the subject under the title Wonders of Salvage. [ps-cassell]

 

THE WONDERS OF SALVAGE David Masters. First published in 1924. John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd, UK). Hardcover, 229 pages, 48 b/w illustrations. Many reprints, and by a number of publishing firms.  In 1929 by John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd, in their 'The Weed-End Library' series.  Small size, hardcover, 'David Masters' signature in gold embossed on cover, 258 pages, no illustrations.  [ps-no dj] In 1944, by Eyre & Spottiswoode, London.   [ps-no dj] Hardcover, 292 pages, full page mono photographs. From eBay: A collection of stories on salvage operations of famous wrecks written by a salvage diver who orked on the sunken German High Seas fleet in the Scapa Flow. Many wrecks and salvage operations are mentioned in this book: Milwaukee wrecked near Aberdeen, Alphonso XII, Araby, HMS Audacious, Belgian Prince, Lutine,Britannia, City of Paris, Flying Dutchman,General Goethals, Gladiator, Hypatia, Intrepid, Laurentic, Leonardo da Vinci, Montagu, Montgomery, Oceana, Silurus, Timbo,Vindictive, Westmoreland, Onward, Seuvic, War Knight, Wrestler. There is a lot on: Admiralty, American ubmarines, battleships, blazing, blasting, cables, coffer dams,compressed air, divers, (attacked by octopus, buried alive, caught at 200 feet, crushed by pressure, working in darkness, salvaging treasure, boots, breathing, communication with submarine, diver feeds submarine prisoners, risks, survey,use hacksaws, pneumatic chisels, work in mud, in 190 feet, etc). Diving bell, dress, records, strains, tragedies, dredging, German ships and submarines, torpedoes, torpedo, WWI, world war I, lighthouses and lightships, Lusitania, mines, minefields, pontoons,pressure, pumps, salving ships, storms, trapped in sunken submarines, many references to treasure hunting,U-boat, U-Boot, etc. etc. The photos are impressive and it is astonishing what was achieved in this area 80 years ago. Amust for collectors.

 

WHEN SHIPS GO DOWN First published 1932. Several reprints to at least 1941. Eyre & Spottiswoode Ltd, London. Hardcover 355 pages, index, approx 20 mono plates.  Another excellent title by an author who has specialised in books on salvage and hard hat diving. This one is a compendium of stories of ship and salvers, with quite a bit on submarines (as the destructors), and treasure (the Egypt's gold is covered. Perhaps it is the anecdotes of the divers that are the most interesting in this book. A very good read. [ps]

 
 

UP PERISCOPE. Dial Press. Location? 1943.                                           .

"I.D." NEW TALES OF THE SUBMARINE WAR
Published by Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1940.
Hardcover, dust jacket?, 296 pags, mono plates.
Chapters include: The Outbreak of War, The Submrine Strike, Fighting the U-Boats, The End of U49, The Archangel Disaster, The Lusitania, German Attacks on Hospital Ships, Salviong the Sunik, and many others.
[ps-no dj]

S.O.S. - A BOOK OF SEA ADVENTURE
Published by Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1933.
Hardcover, dust jacket?, 338 pages, mono plates.
Chapters include:
The Passing of the Hong Moh, Drifting to Death, Ordeal by Fire, Out of the Inferno, Keepers of the Light, Th Burning Tanker, A Black Sea Adventure, Fire and Water, Perils of the Deep.
[ps-no dj]

THE ROMANCE OF SALVAGE 
A Record of the Amazing Discoveries in Egypt, Assyria, Troy, Crete, and elsewhere.
David Masters. 
Published by John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd. Date not known.

OTHER BOOKS BY David Masters

WHAT MEN WILL DO FOR MONEY
SO FEW
WITH PENNANT FLYING
PERILOUS DAYS
GLORY OF BRITAIN
CONQUEST OF DISEASE
MIRACLE DRUG