Diving-related books

[ethanb]

The "cave diving show" thread made me think that we should have a discussion of books that might be interesting to forum participants.  I'll start out with a few:

First, the obvious ones:

• The Last Dive (on the Rouses)
  
• Shadow Divers (on the U-who)
  
• Fatal Depth (on the Doria)
  
• Deep Descent (on the Doria)
  
• Dark Descent (on the Empress; I haven't read this one yet)
  
• Silent World (Cousteau)
  

Of the books on NE wreck diving, my favorite would probably be Shadow Divers...

Cave-diving books:

• Beyond the Deep (on caving and diving in Sistema Huautla in Mexico, must read)
  
• Caverns Measureless to Man (Sheck Exley's classic)
  
• Blue Holes of the Bahamas
  
• Deep into Blue Holes (also on the Bahamas)
  
• Deeper into Blue Holes (seriously)
  
• The Darkness Beckons (Martyn Farr's classic - greatest book title ever)
  

Treasure and shipwreck hunting books:

• Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea (S.S. Central America - this is a must-read)
  
• The Sea Hunters I and II (Clive Cussler's real-life  shipwreck hunting adventures)
  

Fiction:

• Anything by Clive Cussler
  
• David Poyer's "Tiller Galloway Undersea Thrillers" - i've only read Sunless Sea and it was decent
  

Dry caving books:

• The Longest Cave (must-read, on the Mammoth Cave - Flint Ridge connection in the 1970s)
  
• The Caves Beyond (earlier book on Mammoth exploration in the 1950s)
  
• Beyond Mammoth Cave (recent book on Mammoth exploration - I haven't read this one yet)
  

[MikeS]

Here are some others that I've read:


Submerged, Adventures of America's Most Elite Underwater Archeological team by Daniel Lenihan

Nuertral Bouyance by Tim Ecott

Down time, stories edited by Ed Kittrell, et al

Deep, Deeper, Deepest, Man's Exploration of the Sea, by Robert Marx

Rapture of the Deep, And Other Dive Stories You Probably Shouldn't know, by (I forget).

[matt t.]

"The Helldivers Rodeo", by Humberto Fontova.

Stories about a bunch of red neck goobers down in Louisiana that spear fish around the oil rigs in the golf. Lots of "what not to do" stuff in that one.

[Omicron]

Dang, you guys hit all my favorite books.

Sheck's Caverns Measureless to man is good.  I like the book "Taming of The Slough" as well - it's about the exploration of Peacock Springs.  Good read.

Neutral Buoyancy is a very neat read on the history of diving and one man's experience with diving. 

Deep descent, the last dive, etc, etc - all the "staples" are good.  I know I'll be picking up a few more from the ones you all mentioned here though.

Admitting this book shows how bad of a dive geek I am, but the NSS-CDS Cave Diving Manual was dang near riveting.

The "100 Best Great Lakes Shipwrecks" books by Chris Kohl - very good books.  Nice writeups on the history, crew and sinking circumstances of each wreck along with full color photos.  An excellent book - it's not a diving guide, it's a good read.

Wild Gales & Tattered Sails by Paul J Creviere JR - more good stories on lakes shipwrecks.

Ghost Ships, Gales & Forgotten Tales by Wes Oleszewski - again, some EXCELLENT stories on great lakes wrecks.

I'm a history geek too, so those books really do it for me.

There is one last one, but I can't think of the title or author.  It's the history of the great lakes rescue crews - essentially the origin of the rescue crews, lighthouses, etc on the lakes.  Not exactly diving related, but it has a connection.