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another vessel, which fortuitously was nearby. The Central America, after a gallant fight, sank in mountainous seas and, believe it or not, a few m en were still alive and were picked up the fo llowing morning. Most of th e passengers had come from the gold mines and slui ceways in California, and the ship sank with millions of dollars' worth of go ld dust, gold co ins and gold bars in 8,000 feet of water. At that depth, salvage was, of co urse, impossible and remain ed so until the early 1980s. Thompson, more interested in deep-water exploration and archaeo logy than in the possible fortun e that lay on the bottom, determined to at least try to find the remains of the SS CentralAmerica. The search required years of painstaking research so detailed that the individuals involved came to know the passe ngers as if they were friends or relati ves. Next came the developmem of equipment, including television and video cameras, which could work precisely at this great depth, sending back to the surface" real time" pictures of the bottom . This was in itself a remarkable sciemific achievemem. To find and idemify the wreck, however, was as nothing compared to the next challenge-to design, develop and manufacture underwater archeaological equipment which could be co ntrolled so precisely from th e surface that objects could be picked up without disturbing anything nearby and brought to the surface. The wreckirselfwas meticulously surveyed without touching it, and great care was taken to preserve the archaeological integrity of the remains. Gold was indeed found, spilled across the ocean bottom literally in piles of bricks and coins, and brought to the surface, with the greatest possible care of what was left behind. Al l in all, it is a book which is almost impossible to put down once one has read the first sentence, and this writer found it to be one of the most fascinating accounts it has ever been his privilege to enjoy. THOMAS HALE
Vineyard Haven, Massachuserrs
A Handful of Emeralds: On Patrol with th e Hanna in the Postwar Pacific by Joseph C. Meredith (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 1997, 216pp, illus, index, ISBN 1-55750-590-x; $32.95hc) This charming and sensitive recounting
of a series of patrols by a US Navy Destroyer Esco rt between December 1953 and May 1954 through M icrones ia and the Bonin and Volcano Islands was written by author and captain Joseph C. M eredith, w ho had see n so me of these places during Wo rld War II as an officer on a destro ye r, when they we re inJapanese hands. Now he was tasked with independent patrol and surveillance of these little-known island chains-great du ty fora young commander. His experiences in clude exploration, mappin g, rescues and imerception of poaching fish erm en. His discoveries of long-abandon ed Japanese gun emplacements on islands so small that they were for the most part never in vaded is a story in itself. Meredith 's fascination with th ese mi croscop ic bits of co ral and their often quire prim itive people led him after his Navy retirement to research the annals of early exploration of these parts, much of which is in corporated into the narrative as USS H anna proceeds on her way. T he charm of the narrative is summed up in the book's last sentence: "Ir is from knowing of such little places as th ese that I am led to believe there must sti ll exist havens of beauty, affection, respect, and quiet happiness somewhere in the South Seas. " I hope they are still there. TOWNSEN D H OR OR
O srerville, Massachuserrs Monitor: The Story of the Legendary Civil War Ironclad an d th e Man Whose Invention Changed th e Course of History, by James Terri us deKay (Walker and Co mpany, New York NY, 247pp, notes, index, ISBN 0-8027- 1330-0; $2 1he) As the C ivil War began, probably the US Navy's most important base was the No rfolk Navy Yard in Virginia, in which lay the pride of the Navy-the powerful steam frigate USS Merrimac. The Union navy abandoned the base in April 1861 , and Merrimac was burned to her waterline, sinking at her pier. W hen Merrimac, rechristened CSS Virginia, was raised by th e Confederacy, a sloping, slab-sided structure was built over her and pierced with gun ports, its sides sheathed with iron and railroad rails and slathered with pig grease to deflect enemy cannonballs. Ugly, slow and almost unmarueuverable as she was, she co uld prove v'irtually impregnable and single-handed ly
SEA HISTORY 86, AUTUMN 1998