Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II

Book Description

In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm comes a true tale of riveting adventure in which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery–and make history themselves.

For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was more than a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents, braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, navigating through wreckage as perilous as a minefield, they pushed themselves to their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than once in the rusting hulks of sunken ships.
But in the fall of 1991, not even these courageous divers were prepared for what they found 230 feet below the surface, in the frigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey: a World War II German U-boat, its ruined interior a macabre wasteland of twisted metal, tangled wires, and human bones–all buried under decades of accumulated sediment.
No identifying marks were visible on the submarine or the few artifacts brought to the surface. No historian, expert, or government had a clue as to which U-boat the men had found. In fact, the official records all agreed that there simply could not be a sunken U-boat and crew at that location.

Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked on a quest to solve the mystery. Some of them would not live to see its end. Chatterton and Kohler, at first bitter rivals, would be drawn into a friendship that deepened to an almost mystical sense of brotherhood with each other and with the drowned U-boat sailors–former enemies of their country. As the men’s marriages frayed under the pressure of a shared obsession, their dives grew more daring, and each realized that he was hunting more than the identities of a lost U-boat and its nameless crew.

Author Robert Kurson’s account of this quest is at once thrilling and emotionally complex, and it is written with a vivid sense of what divers actually experience when they meet the dangers of the ocean’s underworld. The story of Shadow Divers often seems too amazing to be true, but it all happened, two hundred thirty feet down, in the deep blue sea.

From the Hardcover edition.

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CHAPTER ONE

THE BOOK OF NUMBERS

Brielle, New Jersey, September 1991

Bill Nagle's life changed the day a fisherman sat beside him in a ramshackle bar and told him about a mystery he had found lying at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Against his better judgment, that fisherman promised to tell Nagle how to find it. The men agreed to meet the next day on the rickety wooden pier that led to Nagle's boat, the Seeker, a vessel Nagle had built to chase possibility. But when the appointed time came, the fisherman was not there. Nagle paced back and forth, careful not to plunge through the pier where its wooden planks had rotted away. He had lived much of his life on the Atlantic, and he knew when worlds were about to shift. Usually, that happened before a storm or when a man's boat broke. Today, however, he knew it was going to happen when the fisherman handed him a scrap of paper, a hand-scrawled set of numbers that would lead to the sunken mystery. Nagle looked into the distance for the fisherman. He saw no one. The salt air blew against the small seashore town of Brielle, tilting the dockside boats and spraying the Atlantic into Nagle's eyes. When the mist died down he looked again. This time, he saw the fisherman approaching, a small square of paper crumpled in his hands. The fisherman looked worried. Like Nagle, he had lived on the ocean, and he also knew when a man's life was about to change.

In the whispers of approaching autumn, Brielle's rouge is blown away and what remains is the real Brielle, the locals' Brielle. This small seashore town on the central New Jersey coast is the place where the boat captains and fishermen live, where convenience store owners stay open to serve neighbors, where fifth graders can repair scallop dredges. This is where the hangers-on and wannabes and also-rans and once-greats keep believing in the sea. In Brielle, when the customers leave, the town's lines show, and they are the kind grooved by the thin dif

Customer Reviews:

You Feel Like You Are There.......2007-10-05

Others have gone into detail about this book, and it is true. This book combines a mystery worthy of a Sherlock Holmes novel with the details of technical diving and written in such a gripping manner that it could be a work of pop fiction (not in a negative way, just that it flows so well and put together so well that it could have been made up, if that makes sense.)

And the author does a great job of not leaving you "hanging" with an abrupt ending.

Highly recommended and has set the bar for other books in this genre.

J ohn Sutphen MD, ex navy diver /submarine medical officer .......2007-09-21

Tantallizing and heart pounding tale based on incredibly researched information about u boats and diving with an accurate, simple description of practical diving, diving medicine and physiology.

Compulsion to know the answer........2007-09-13

A fascinating saga about 2 deep sea divers and their 6 year odyssey to uncover the identity of a sunken German U boat. A captivating story, and you'll learn a lot about deep sea diving.

Deep Thrills.......2007-09-05

An absorbing account of the discovery and identification by veteran divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler of a sunken Nazi U-boat 100 miles off the coast of New Jersey. Kurson skillfully weaves together several threads into a very readable narrative, including the evolution of Chatterton and Kohler's rivalry-turned-friendship, the technical hazards of exploring a mangled wreck in 230 feet of water, and the duo's maddening, seven-year long ordeal to obtain positive evidence -- both on the wreck and in official but flawed US and German naval records -- of the boat's identity. As the tale draws to a close, Kurson also draws a moving portrait of the U-boat's crew, who went to sea in the final days of the war and knew that they likely would not return alive.

I started diving when the final pieces of this mystery were falling into place, and can remember following the story of New Jersey's mystery U-boat in the papers. However, none of those articles was anywhere as involving as Kurson's account, which I devoured in four days. Sure, there's some overheated prose here and there ("in a shipwreck, where every danger is first cousin to every other, a diver's desparation makes an open house of his bad situation."), but that's a minor strike against this otherwise excellent and comprehensive work.

Rare Intimate Journey To The Shadows.......2007-08-28

Sometimes the flaws make a thing so much more than perfection could ever achieve. The imperfections in this literary account of the exploration of a WWII submarine discovered in 1991 off the Coast of New Jersey are well documented. Those imperfections didn't bother me.

I was facinated by the detailed account of the personalities of the divers in "Shadow." Its easy to identify a future SCUBA diver - someone who is comfortable putting their face under water. Even better, because it will sometimes trump the 'face' test, is whether a person's curiosity is so intense that they are able to project their consciousness entirely onto something outside of themselves to the virtual exclusion of other thoughts. Divers want to investigate, explore, see something extraordinary, find out whats under that rock, go someplace very few people have been, find something unique, etc. The experience is so strong, you may forget to be worried about all the risks.

My enjoyment of "Shadow" was absolutely enhanced by my experience as a diver who is both Nitrox and advanced open water certified. I have never gone deeper than 110 ft - The U-boat 85, off of Nags Head, North Carolina, which is 20ft shallower than the recreational diving limit of 130 ft. So far, I've never wanted to see anything deeper, but I suspect I'll pass. Surface light begins to diminish rapidly. It usually gets alot colder.

At the depths routinely visitied by the divers in this book, 230 ft., nitrogen narcosis is an inevitability, and helium mixes carry their own risks. Water pressure increases to seven times what it is at the surface. Just when you need all your mental faculties and judgement, you can be assured they will be impared to an extent that cannot be anticipated from dive to dive. Even more frightening is that getting to the surface to resolve any problems that may arise (my mask came off once at 80 ft), must now include a life-saving decompression stop. When you head for the surface with less than 30 minutes of air for your stop, you're in trouble.

Diving can put you face to face with three realities that I don't sense as readily on land: 1.) the incredible spiritual beauty of the natural world, 2.) how alone we really are (I've never felt more alone than those very few times I've dived without a buddy), 3.) Death is always hiding within convenient reach.

The insatiable curiosity of the two lead characters, Chatterton and Kohler, also drives them above the water, as they travel to Europe to learn as much as they can about the submarine and its crew. There was no 'gold' involved, just an incredible mystery to solve.

"Shadow" was one of those books I read in one sitting (I missed dinner). I would compare it to Krakauer's works in power and drama, if not as well written. But again, in a way the rough nature of the text enhanced the story, as if I was sitting across the table from the author.

NOTE TO FELLOW DIVERS: After reading this book I have found my goal for my diving trips next summer - get my "Rescue Diver" certification.

NOTE TO THOSE PEOPLE trying to get young men (ages 9-15) into reading - I know of two young men who hated to read until they picked up this book. Not that they love reading now, but the 'no trespassing' sign is now down in front of the library.

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure Of Two Americans Who Risked Everything To Solve One Of The Last Mysteries Of World War II

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Shadow Divers: The True Adventure Of Two Americans Who Risked Everything To Solve One Of The Last Mysteries Of World War II
Robert Kurson
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NXUMKM

Book Description

Discusses the evolution of Dylan's style and concerns. The most informed interpretation available of Dylan's mature work. B/w photos.

Customer Reviews:

Right on, Mr. Williams.......2006-03-13

The period 1974-76 represents a second 'peak' of the career of Bob Dylan, that which meets or exceeds his initial peak of 65-66.

Paul Williams gets an AAA rating for his insights ...

An Amazing Dylan Book.......1998-08-26

The second volume of "Bob Dylan, Performing Artist" covers the less understood, less appreciated, but often more rewarding second part of Dylan's career. Williams convincingly argues that much of Dylan's finest work came during this period, and his writing may have you digging out your old copy of "Shot of Love" or "Empire Burlesque" (or your bootleg tapes of those 1979-80 "born again" shows) to hear what he's talking about.

Bob Dylan, Performing Artist: The Middle Years, 1974-1986

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Bob Dylan, Performing Artist: The Middle Years, 1974-1986
Paul Williams
Manufacturer: Omnibus Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1844490963
Release Date: 2004-06-01

Product Description

The second volume of Paul Williams widely acclaimed writngs on the music and performances of Bob Dylan, The small format edition of this authoritative biography discusses the evolution of Dylan s style and concerns. Here is the most lucid and informed interpretation of the mature work of this major twentieth-century artist.

Book Description

The title of the book -- Implicate Relations -- is suggested as a notion which characterizes the nature of social relations in general and the relations between Israelis and Palestinians in particular. According to it, Israelis and Palestinians, as societies and as individuals, are not definable independently of each other. In a kind of implicate relation one is enfolded within the other to the extent that Palestinian national identity can be seen as a Zionist creation. Implicate relations further implies that societies are socio-spatial entities which come into being and acquire their collective self-consciousness and self-identity through a process of spatial dialectics. As illustrated throughout the discussions in the book, spatial dialectics was the process through which European Jews were driven into an identity crisis once their (spatial) Ghetto walls disintegrated and they thus became conscious of their nationalist-political identity. And it is this process through which, several decades later, the Arabs in Israel were forced into an identity crisis and became conscious of their Palestinian national identity once the Zionists had defined the boundaries of their future Jewish state. It is also the process through which Israelis and Palestinians became engaged in implicate relations. This is illustrated in the book by reference to historical events which have led to the emergence of Israelis and Palestinians as socio-spatial entities, and by means of empirical analyses of Palestinian labour in Israel, Jewish settlement in the occupied territories, and cognititive maps of Israelis and Palestinians. These empirical analyses are based on data collected in three large-scale field surveys among Palestinian workers and job hunters in Israel, and among Israeli settlers in the occupied territories.

Book Description

C++ is a complex language with many subtle facets. This is especially true when it comes to object-oriented and template programming. The C++ Pocket Reference is a memory aid for C++ programmers, enabling them to quickly look up usage and syntax for unfamiliar and infrequently used aspects of the language. The book's small size makes it easy to carry about, ensuring that it will always be at-hand when needed. Programmers will also appreciate the book's brevity; as much information as possible has been crammed into its small pages. In the C++ Pocket Reference, you will find:

Information on C++ types and type conversions
Syntax for C++ statements and preprocessor directives
Help declaring and defining classes, and managing inheritance
Information on declarations, storage classes, arrays, pointers, strings, and expressions
Refreshers on key concepts of C++ such as namespaces and scope
More!

C++ Pocket Reference is useful to Java and C programmers making the transition to C++, or who find themselves occasionally programming in C++. The three languages are often confusingly similar. This book enables programmers familiar with C or Java to quickly come up to speed on how a particular construct or concept is implemented in C++. Together with its companion STL Pocket Reference, the C++ Pocket Reference forms one of the most concise, easily-carried, quick-references to the C++ language available.

Customer Reviews:

You get what you pay for.......2007-02-16

If you are looking for a quick and dirty C++ pocket reference, this book should be on the top of your list. It covers all of the necessities, which is great for when you are switching between programming languages. If you have too many languages in your mind, a quick reference is a great little refresher, which this book certainly provides.

My only qualm, and the reason it loses a star, is that the organization is not completely intuitive. However, after a few uses, you get used to this and it becomes a non-issue. I suppose you would have this with any book.

Excellent as intro for C and Java Programers.......2004-07-01

For many years, I did most of my programming in C, but never learned C++. In recent years, I have been using Java mostly. Now I wish to get back to C++, and I have found this book to be an excellent introduction. In order to read this book one already needs to know how to work with the very low level aspects of C, and at the same time one must understand object oriented concepts. But for the reader who is at such a place, this book provides a very concise description of the C++ language. In just 125 small pages, the author manages to step through all of the aspects of the C++ language and concisely describe them.

Great pocket reference.......2003-07-06

The C++ Pocket Reference is designed for C or Java developers who occasionally program in C++ and need a syntax reminder. Not designed as a tutorial or provide lengthy instruction on the subject, this book is great for a one paragraph explanation on a particular topic.

I found this to be a very useful and easy to follow book. It starts out with the basics of writing a C++ program (processor directives, data types) and slowly moves into more complicated aspects of this language (like templates and memory management).

Book Description

The STL Pocket Reference describes the functions, classes, and templates in that part of the C++ standard library often referred to as the Standard Template Library (STL). The STL encompasses containers, iterators, algorithms, and function objects, which collectively represent one of the most important and widely used subsets of standard library functionality. The C++ standard library, even the subset known as the STL, is vast. It's next to impossible to work with the STL without some sort of reference at your side to remind you of template parameters, function invocations, return types--indeed, the entire myriad of details you need to know in order to use the STL effectively and get work done. You need a memory-aid. Books that cover the standard library and the STL tend to be quite heavy and large, describing each aspect of the STL in detail. Such books are great when you're not familiar with the library, but get in the way when you simply need to remind yourself of a function name, or the order in which you pass arguments to a function. Programmers familiar with the STL need a small, lightweight memory-aid. That's what the STL Pocket Reference is. It's small, lightweight, and chock-full of information that you can take in at a glance, so you can get on with your work.

Customer Reviews:

Best reference for the C++ STL yet!.......2007-02-02

This small but succinct reference book is all that I wanted in an STL pocket guide and more! I am using it today while teaching a beginning STL class. It is more useful to me than the many textbooks I have been reading on the subject. GO GO O'Reilly! Your materials are excellent for programmers.

A Must for the Software Developer Generalist.......2006-02-27

The O'Reilly Pocket Reference series serves the need of software developers to quickly lookup how to code something that they don't do every day. The formula is quite strict. Like all of these books, this book is a hybrid of introduction, cookbook, and reference in a package that is small enough to easily fit several dozen on your bookshelf. What's good about the STL Pocket Reference is that it provides succinct descriptions of some very abstract concepts that are the lingua franca when dealing with the Structured Template Library. What's missing here is more sample code.

Cute and handy.......2003-11-01

Cute, if I may use that term for a computer book! Hopefully, you already are familiar with the constructs described in this nifty little guide. Priority queues, queues, sets, iterators ... The book is strictly an aid to memory. You might consider it the hardcopy kin to online manual pages on each term.

Which raises the question. If you have the equivalent information already on your computer, why should you get this book? For some, there is in fact no need. But a surprising (and ironic) number of programmers still prefer hardcopy by their desktops. There is still something appealing about the combined visual, tactile and random access of a good concise reference book which trumps a screen, though we all write to the latter nowadays.

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