CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS

    Novels, fiction, and other underwater stories. 

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    Please note: The books are listed for interest only, and not offered for sale.
    No longer includes adollescent and children's titles. See juvenile site.

    It is not always that easy to determine if a book is a work of fiction or not. It should b made clear through the cover blurb if there is any doubt, and certainly books by Harry Reiseberg have a measure of fantasy to them, but ostensibly they are non-fiction works. Of course, works by Jules Verne and Herman Melville are fiction - there is no mistaking this fact. But others ? Well, use your judgement.


     
     
    TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA
    Jules Verne.
    Ward, Lock & Co., London, Melbourne, Toronto. No date.
    This edition: Hardcover, embossed boards with pasted illustration. The frontispiece is a painting of a ship; same as on the front board; 320 pages. [ps]
    A CRIME OF THE UNDER SEAS. 
    Guy Boothby
    London, Ward Lock. 1905. 
    Decorated dark blue cloth, attractively embellished in gilt (gilded fish no less) and green. 8vo. 
    A series of short stories from the man who invented Dr.Nicola (and his cat), including the title story involving a sunken steamer, a murdered jewel courier and a variety of copper-helmeted diving suit shenanigans. 
    A DIVER WENT DOWN
    Jack McLaren.
    The Mandrake Press, London.Undated C.1929. Hardcover , dustjacket. 16mo - over 5" - 6" tall. 84pp. 
    Stephen at Grant's Bookshop in Armadale, Victoria, states: The book appears to be fiction. The opening page states that "The victim was Burford, owner and diver of the Thursday Island pearling-lugger Better 
    Luck, an underwater adventurer who had walked the sea-floor...". The action seems to occur near the New Guinea shore. There is only one illustration, the frontispiece, and was drawn by 
    Frederick Carter. Although the upper panel of the dustwrapper does contain another small illustration of a diver.
    A DIVER IN CHINA SEAS - stories.
    Fred Urquart
    Quartet Books, London, 1980. Hardcover, dustjacket, 214 pp. I have no further information - may be fiction. 
    COME AWAY, PEARLER
    Colin Simpson.
    Angus and Roberston, Sydney & London, 1952.
    Hardcover, dustjacket, 248 pages.
    From the fly:
    Here is a novel from the author of that best-seller in another field, Adam in Ochre. Its action and romance find an uusual and exciting setting in the pearling life of tropical Australia in the great days of the nineties. The scene moves from Thursday Island across the Arafura Sea to the .. tide-rips and hurricanes that beset the luggermen of Broome and King Sound. It is the story of Ty Calvert, the young pearl-buyer from Paris who becomes a diver. He contends with the violence of men and of nature, and trespasses not only in the fantastic world beneath the Coral Sea but, in the lives of two beautiful women - Leda Haslingden, daughter of a Brisbane surgeon, and Clover, the half- caste Balinese. Colin Simpson knows the pearling ports at first hand, and vividly portrays their strange and highly-coloured mixture of humanity. Equally real is the life at sea and under the sea, with its perils and fascinations; and the hurricane that overtakes Ty's lugger will blow the reader's breath away. 
    --
    I am sure the book is better written than the fly blurb.  [ps],[cd]
    DEVIL DIVER
    Frank Crisp
    The Bodley Head Press, 1954.
    Hardcover, dustjacket.  *** No idea what this is about - may or may not be fiction. 
    IN AUSTRALIA TREASURE IS NOT FOR THE FINDER  Allan Robinson.
    Self published, in 1980. ISBN 0-9594957-0-3
    Hardcover, oblong format. No dustjacket. Mono drawings, several colour photographs and drawings, newspaper article reprints. 140 pages, two column text. 
    It's not structly a children's book, but it is a lod of fiction even though that was not the author's intention. In fact I would not recommend any child, nor indeed an adult, to read it. Robinson claimed to have found the Dutch East Indiaman Vergulde Draeck when actually it was first discovered in 1963 by a sixteen-year-old lad, Graeme Henderson, later Director of the Maritime Archaeology Department of the Western Australian Museum. Robinson lay claim to the thousands of dollars worth of coins found on the wreck, resulting in a long and bitter battle with the WA Government though the courts. The discovery also made the author a self-acclaimed mritime historian who claims that the Egyptians were the first to colonise Australia, having rowed across the Indian Ocean in triremes. He was accused of conterfieting coins, and assault, and ended up in prison where he hung himself. The book covers the authors bitter struggles with the government at a time when the Historic Shipwreck Act was being introduced. It really is a sad story all round, but this book is really an absolute load of crap, and will no doubt become a classic just for this reason. [ps]
    LOG OF THE FLYING FISH
    Harry Collingwood.
    Printed by Blackie & Son, London, early 20th century.
    From eBay:
    "Great picture of a diver on the front cover.A ripping yarn."
    No idea what this is about, nor if it contains any relevance to diving. 
    OUT OF THE DEPTHS
    A Scuba Mystery.
    Leonard Holton. 
    Published by Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, 1966.
    Hardcover, dustjacket, 185 pages. 
    From the fly: Father Bredder of the Church of the Holy Innocents and his friend Lieutenant Minardi of the Los Angeles Police Department were engaged in the pleasant pastime of fishing from a pier that jutted out into the Pacific.  It was Father Bredder who first hooked onto something which felt like a prodigious strike but which turned out to be part and parcel of a scuba diver's gear.  A police launch confirmed the ghastly suspicion-deep in the dark waters below them lay the lifeless body of a scuba diver in his full equipment. The Father Bredder stories are notable for the excitement of their plots, their warmth of characterization and the wit and wisdom which grace their pages.  All these are present in full measure in the pages of this new novel.  [ps]
    SECRET SEA
    "Close-hauled adventure in a search for sunken gold."
    by Robb White 
    Copyright: 1951, Printed: 1955, Published by: Pocketbook Jr.
    Paperback.
    No idea what this is all about. Probably fiction. 
    24 July 2007. Following information kindly posted by Scott Mayeda, USA (thankyou Scott):
    Secret Sea is a good baby boomer teen book about a wounded WW II Navy officer who is forced out of the Navy
    having to go treasure hunting to support his kid brothers hospital bills.  He sets out with a young warf rat as his
    partner, has a sinister German (thinly veiled former Nazi) following him to try and steal the treasure, battle with an
    octopus in the wreck, and comes home with the treasure so his brother can get the medical treatment he needs.
    SHIPWRECK
    Douglas Stewart.
     
    The Shepherd Press, Sydney, Australia 1947.
    Special edition: The Shepherd Press, Sydney, 1948,  Hardcover, full Leather,  Signed by Author, Special Limited Edition of 100.
    Frontispiece watercolour painting by Norman Lindsay, ‘The Death of Huyssen'. 
    Hardcover, dustjacket, 96 pages.
    This is a play, based on the wreck of the Batavia in 1629 in the Abrolhos Islands off the Western Australian coast. Those familiar with this famous wreck and its notorious aftermath of rape and massacre will readily appreciate that the scenario of the survivors on Beacon Island may indeed make a fine, if gruesome, play. Here we have Francis Pelsart, the Commodoree, and the murdering swine Cornelius, the ships Supercargo. There is Webby Hays (sic) who finds water on another island (and in reality, warns Pelseart of the murders on the island on his return from Batavia). There is Godwin Van Mylen and his wife Lucrecia who survives, in the play at least.  Godwin doesn't. Nor do over a hundred others on the island. Why anyone would want to write a play about such a terrible event in Australia's history I have no idea. It is a ‘poetic drama', in dull prose.I tried to read it, to check its authenticity in as much as one can without being there, but I couldn't follow much of the drivel of dialogue and how it was presented. The author attaches a love scenario from Cornelious to Lucretia, of doubtful veracity when lust is his motivation, and there is a running theme of the missing cat - who cares? Maybe thats the message - the survivors are worried about the bloody cat when so many have been mordered. Well, I've stayed on Beacon Island for several nights, in a hut, and even in my wildest dreams, which I did not have, I could not image the scale of horror that Cornelious caused. I'm not sure that the author got that message across. I have no idea if this play was ever staged - I hope not. The painting by Norman Lindsay is superbly executed as expected, but it hardly describes the scene.  [ps]
    THE AMPHORA PIRATESA 
    Lou Cameron. 
    Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1971. Harcover, dust jacket, .211pp. First British novel of skulduggery involving underwater archaeologists and amphora pirates-criminal skindivers who plunder ancient wrecks for Greek vases (amphorae). 
    Hardcover, dustjacket, 211 pages.
    From the fly: Leo Martin was bumming around Europe with skin-diving gear and a typewriter when he fell into trouble.  He'd written a piece on underwater treasures which had attracted the attention of quite a few people. Among them was a group of amphora piratescriminal skin-divers who plunder ancient wrecks for the Greek vases (amphorae) which can be sold for enormous amounts to innocent tourists.  The head of this outlaw band of cut-throats is Mike Konakai, a huge Hawaiian. Martin was dragooned into joining themone look at big Mike was enough.  Martin realized that his associates were under the watchful eye of Captain Colonna, the deceptively soft-spoken officer in charge of protecting ltaly's sunken heritage from vandalism-by shooting to kill with a deck gun if necessary. Konakal finally lets Martin take a legitimate skin-diving job with an underwater archaeologist, Dr. Menderes, who has been searching for a treasure galley that went down a thousand years B.C. One of the charms of this job is the archaeologist's daughter, very knowledgeable about sea treasures-and other less intellectual pursuits. Unlike the amphora pirates, Menderes has a licence to salvage the wreck.  So there should be no problems, except for the continuing suspicions of Captain Colonna, the determination of Konakai to hijack the treasure if and when it is ever found-and someone . . . someone Leo can't identify, who keeps murdering people connected with the project. The Amphora Pirates is full of action, suspense and adventure and has the added charm of professional know-how about underwater exploration. [ps]
    THE LOG FROM THE SEA OF CORTEZ
    John Steinbeck.
    'The narrative portion of the book Sea of Cortez with a profile about Ed Ricketts'.
    First published in Great Britain in 1958 by William Heinemann Ltd, London. Copyright indication give the impression tht it was previously published in 1941 and 1951, no doubt in the USA.
    Hardcover, dust jacket, 282 pages.
    Havn't read it - no idea what its all about, but if its Steinbeck, its got to be good. If you have read it, perhaps you would like top contact me with a synopsis. 
    THE TEN KINGS OF THE SEA: THE SALVAGE OF SANTA ISABELLA'S TREASURE 
    Jacques Mayol, Pierre Mayol, Carla Sherman (Translator) 
    Aa fictional story that holds appeal for divers and sea lovers. The story is based upon Jacques and Pierre Mayol shared underwater experiences and discoveries. Their interest in the lost continent of Atlantis led them to the Atlantic Ocean, the Bahamas and the mysteries of Bimini and other islands of the Bahamas. Along the way, Jacques discovered a Spanish galleon sunk some 300 years ago. This shipwreck became a primary inspiration for this novel. 
    THE PEARL FISHERS
    Subtitle: A Story of St Francis Xavier.
    Gertrude Hollis
    Published by: Thomas Nelson and Sons, London in 1913.
    Hard back with illustrated cover;  245 printed pages.  Dimensions: 19.5 cms tall by 13 cms wide
    Adventure novel about an expedition from Portugal to the East Indies and Far East. Fictionalized account of the life of St Francis Xavier, co-founder of the Jesuits in the sixteenth century, told as an exciting boys' adventure story.  The pearl diving (by breath hold) takes place off Ceylon, known today as Sri Lanka  It is written in nineteen chapters with two colour prints, sadly not of divers.  The book cover shows a native pearl diver handing a bag of pearl shell over to two members of the crew, the spine has a picture of a galleon sailing away. [pt]
    Additional note: There is also - THE PEARL FISHERS by H. De Vere Stacpoole. 
    Hutchinson & C0., London. No date but circa 1910. Hardcover, 288 pages.
    And by way of intererest, Georges Bizet wrote  The Pearl Fishers (Die Perlenfischer), a vocal opera score, available as sheet music of course and also in paperback, in German and English, of 202 pages by Kalmus, 1973.  [ps-nb]
    THE PEARLING MASTER
    Tom Ronan.
    Cassell, London, 1958.
    Hardcover, dustjacket, 318 pages. 
    A tale of pearling set in north-west Australia.
    THE SPONGE PIRATES AND OTHER FLORIDA KEY STORIES
    Jack Stark.  A Hopkins Publication, 1956
    Appears ot be softcover, 86 pp., size 6 x 9.5 inches.
    From eBay blurb: In 1948, Arthur Mc Kee, Jr., a professional deep sea diver, located the scant remains of a sunken ship off the Florida reefs. In searching through the rubble, among the ancient cannons and ballast, Mc Kee found a number of silver coins each dated 1732. He found the cannons and cannon balls were marked with the Spanish insignia.This rare edition was published in 1956 and probably has less than 500 copies published. This edition has two pages titled  "Treasure Diver", and a full page photo of Art Mc Kee [rigged in full hard~hat diving gear and effortlessly clutching a 75lb. bar of silver which he recovered from the wreck of an ancient Spanish Galleon sunk on a reef ‘East of Key Largo'. A book that is possibly based on historial fiction and is adolescent for the most part but illustrates backgroud history and artifacts of the 1733 Fleet wrecks. 
    "..a legend...a book...and a man that brought treasure to the surface when Mel Fisher was still feeding chickens!".
    A very rare book that is seldon offered for the serious collector.
    WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS
    Being the Personal Narrative of Ross Sidney, Diver.
    Holman Day.
    Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York and London. Printed June 1917.
    Hardcover, illustrated and embossed boards in green cloth, gold text; probably no dustjacket but if so, a plain protective wrapper. A single colour painting of a depressed diver and his anxious girlfriend on the opposite page to the title page gives the only indicatioin that this book is about a diver. No other illustrations, 461 pages.
    I thought this was a true autobiography when I bought it but it is actually a novel, and although I have not read it, a skim through reveals little underwater adventure. I wish bookseller would be more explicit when detailing books as I may not have purchased it, but it was not expensive. If anyonbe has read it, please let me know your thoughts. [ps]
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