CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS
"Full Fathom Five" Please note: The books are listed for interest only,
and not offered for sale.
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HOMEPAGE |
Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that does fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. I am intrigued by the fact that several authors have used this title
over the years. Here we have the title used for maritime archaeology,
The prose is Shakespeare, The Tempest (in song, sung by the spirit Ariel) and the use of the three words gives a melodramatic appeal to the title when considered in the Shakespearian context, the drama of death, the decaying corpse beneath the sea, a morphological change into 'something rich and strange'. Some have defined the phrase as meaning despair. That is their prerogative. The authors who use this title thus relate their tales to death - but do they. Do they really appreciate what is being said by the Bard, or is it just a fancy cliche title to use. How indeed it has been overdone. Equally intriguing in its use as a book title is the disection of its meaning - why five fathoms for example? Why not three or seven? Don't get too caught up in the philosophy of it all. Shakespeare had a great way with words did he not! 'Full fathom five they father lies' just rolls off the tongue. |
FULL FATHOM FIVE - Mary Albertus Bain.
Artlook Books, Perth, WA, 1982. (P.O.Box 8268, Stirling Street, Perth, WA) Hardcover, dust jacket, 380 pages, mono photographs., bibliography. Sister Mary Albertus Bain, a member of the Dominican Order of Autralia, is an historian who has taught history and economics within the Order. "The story of one of the most dangrous occupations in the world, yet one surrounded by an aura of romance which never fails to excite the imaginations and spirit of adventure within everyone. The book covers the whole history of the pearling industry in and around Australia from nineteenth century beginnings in Torres Strait to the boom days at Broome, known in those fairytale years as the Queen City of the North! Particulr attention has been paid to the involvcement of Japanese workers and invetors in the indutry and attempts by the Japnese government of the day to negotiate fair treatment for their nationals. The author spent some months in Japan researching mterial and the book includes a number of previously unpublished photographs and documents. Wealthy pearlers and their socialte wives importing gowns from London and Paris, Oriental nightclubs, and sweetly twittering Asiatic beauties, behind-the- scenes financial manouvers, turbanned Sikhs, visits from Europen buyers and the harbour skyline permanently pierced by the myrid of luggers and junks - Broome was indeed a world apart from the rest of Australia." A great book, well written of course, - a valuable contribution to our Australian history. [cd] |
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FULL FATHOM FIVE - Admad Kamal.
Falcon Press 1951 1st Edition Hardcover, dust jacket. A novel. The book was also released under the title of HIGH PRESSURE. This was a mass market paperback, issued by Bantam Books in 1951. I also have recorded that the publisher Grant Thiessen / BookIT Inc. (USA) is involved somewhere. A novel based among the Greek- American sponge fishermen (and women?) of Florida |
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FULL FATHOM FIVE - Mission: Search the Ocean Depths for
a Stolel Nuclear Nightmare - Bart Davis.
Bantam 1987. A mass market paperback. I have no further details.
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FULL FATHOM FIVE, Wrecks of the Spanish Armada
- Colin Martin.
Chatto & Windus. London. 1975. 1st UK Ed. Hardcover, dustjacket, 288 pp with 15 maps and plans, plus 4 pages with 7 colour photos & 16 pages with 26 b/w photos. Dives on wrecks of the Spanish Armada, giving clues to comprehend the defeat: Spanish guns, weather, seamanship.
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FULL FATHOM FIVE - John Wingate.
Heinemann, Great Britain, 1967. Hardcover, dust jacket. |
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FULL FATHOM FIVE - N.R.Syme.
Published by Peter Lunn (Publishers) Pty Ltd, London, 1946. Hardcover, dustjacket, 243 pages, profusely illustrated with mono drawings, size 13 cm wide x 19 cm. This is a boys yarn.From the fly: "For two thousand years mankind has been trying to reach the depths of the ocean. The long story of their failures and successes, from the days of the ancient Greek divers to the bathysphere of Professor Beele is covered by the author - himself a former seaman - in this strange and fascinating book. Mr. Syme relates stories of the pioneers who risked their lives in primitive diving suits of their own invention centuries ago. Thn he passes to the great and colourful accounts accounts of ear1y salvage days, when mankind finally triumphed over the sea and began to wrest long-lost gold from the hulls of sunken ships. Further on in Full Fathom Five are accounts of the brave men who manned the early death-traps which were called submarines, and the author concludes with the epic stories of those who escaped from the great and modern submarines, H.M.S. Poseidon and H.M.S. Thetis. In the course of his adventurous life in many different countries the author has aquired an extensive first-hand knowledge of many of the unusual parts of the world and the oceans that he writes about, and his style consequently possesses both confidence and accuracy, lightened by frequent touches of humour. This dramatically illustrated book is one that every boy who loves the sea and the stories of the great adventures of those who sail upon it will want to read". Chapters include: Early Diving Experiments; The Diving Bell; Develoopment f the Diving Suit; The Story of the "Laurentic'; Escape from Sunken Submarines; The Story of the 'Thetis', etc. Note the error in refering to Professor "Beele'. It should read ‘Beebe'. [Thankyou to PT for details]. |
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FULL FATHOM FIVE - John Stewart
Carter.
Houghton Mifflin, Boston, USA, 1965. Hardcover, dustjacket. 246pp. 8vo. Red and white cloth w/black lettering on spine & front cover. Top edge black. Endpapers black. Content is fiction, historical drama. British edition: Collins London 1965. I have had the pleasure of email from the author's nephew. Jim Carter (who kindly provided the image) advises that the book written by his uncle, John Stewart Carter, went through a few hardback editions before being reproduced as a paperback in 1968. |
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FULL FATHOM FIVE - J.E.Macdonnell.
Trojan, Undated, Paperback. Format 4½" x 7". Also: Horwitz Sydney 1968 First Edition 12mo - over 6" - 7" tall. Softcover, pictorial card covers. 130pp. A Peter Bentley/ Dutchy Holland adventure. And: Horwitz Australia 1984 Collector's Series. Mass market paperback. No 92 of the collector's series - Australian naval pulp. |
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FULL FATHOM FIVE - Kate Humphrey
Harper Perennial, Australia, 2004, . Softcover, size: 7"- 8" tall. Australian Fiction |
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FULL FATHOM FIVE: a sea-anthology in Prose & Verse
- Helen and Lewis Melville.
G. Bell & Sons, London, 1910. Pictorial hbk, 263 pp. I also have listed as a soft cover. |
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FULL FATHOM FIVE - Mary Lee Coe Fowler.
Apparently a book about the author's search for details on the loss of her father, a submarine captain in World War 2, and the intriques in her search for the truth. |
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