Raise the Titanic! was published by Viking Press in 1976, the third Dirk Pitt adventure but the first to become a bestseller. The premise is characteristically audacious: the United States government discovers that a rare mineral called byzanium — essential for a new missile defense system — was being transported aboard the Titanic when she sank in April 1912. Pitt, a special projects director for the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), is tasked with raising the entire ship from the ocean floor.
The novel appeared seven years before Robert Ballard actually located the Titanic wreck in 1985 and discovered that the ship had broken in two during her sinking — a detail that would make Cussler’s intact-hull raising scenario physically impossible. But in 1976, the Titanic’s condition was unknown, and Cussler’s engineering scenario, involving massive pontoons and compressed air, was plausible enough to sustain the narrative.
The book established the Cussler formula: a historical mystery (what happened to the byzanium?), a present-day crisis (Soviet agents want it too), an impossible technical challenge (raise a 46,000-ton ship from 12,500 feet), and Dirk Pitt navigating all three with a combination of marine expertise, combat skills, and insouciant charm. The formula would sustain twenty-five Pitt novels and sales exceeding 100 million copies.
The 1980 film adaptation, produced by Lew Grade at a cost of $40 million, was a notorious disaster. Cussler reportedly said the film’s budget would have been better spent actually raising the Titanic.
Collecting Raise the Titanic!
First edition (Viking Press, New York, 1976): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $100–$300
- Very good/very good: $40–$100
- Signed: $150–$400