CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS - Novels, fiction, and other underwater stories.  HOMEPAGE

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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.


     
     
    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.
    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 th book is better written than the fly blurb.  [ps],[cd]
    DIAMOND HEAD DIVER
    Steve Lomas.
    published by Ives Washburn, Inc. 1963. 
    Hardcover in durable pictorial cover, 161pp.
    Probably best for ages 12-15 depending on reading ability. 
    A scuba diving adventure story set in Hawaii. 
    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. 
    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.
    THE AMPHORA PIRATES
    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). 
    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 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.
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