The Sea Hunters: True Adventures with Famous Shipwrecks was published by Simon & Schuster in 1996, co-authored with Craig Dirgo. The book recounts Cussler’s real expeditions through NUMA — the National Underwater and Marine Agency, which he founded in 1979 and named after the fictional organization in his Dirk Pitt novels. The real NUMA, funded largely by Cussler’s book royalties, has located over sixty historically significant shipwrecks.
Each chapter pairs a historical narrative of a ship’s loss with an account of NUMA’s search for the wreck. The ships include the CSS Hunley (the first submarine to sink an enemy warship, lost in 1864), the USS Cumberland (sunk by the CSS Virginia in 1862), the steamship Lexington (burned in Long Island Sound in 1840), the RMS Carpathia (the ship that rescued Titanic survivors, torpedoed in 1918), and the Confederate raider Alabama (sunk off Cherbourg in 1864).
The book reveals something that the fiction does not: Cussler’s genuine expertise in underwater archaeology and his deep knowledge of maritime history. The historical sections are meticulously researched and well-written; the expedition accounts are honest about the frustrations, dead ends, and physical discomforts of actual shipwreck hunting. The contrast between the fiction (where Pitt always finds the wreck) and the reality (where NUMA often does not, or finds it only after years of searching) is itself instructive.
Collecting The Sea Hunters
First edition (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $15–$40
- Very good/very good: $5–$15
- Signed: $30–$80