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Fatal Depth: Deep Sea Diving, China Fever, and the Wreck of the Andrea Doria

Average customer rating:

Great book...
A magazine article on steroids
Great reference book for technical wreck divers
A Good Read
Accurate but disappointing

Fatal Depth: Deep Sea Diving, China Fever, and the Wreck of the Andrea Doria
Joe Haberstroh
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria
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The Rapture of the Deep: And Other Dive Stories You Probably Shouldn't Know
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ASIN: 1585744573

Book Description

The gripping true story of treasure hunting and terrible tragedy encountered by divers exploring the world's most dangerous sunken shipwreck.

Customer Reviews:

Great book..........2007-02-08

I'm an avid reader of anything related to scuba diving and freediving. This book filled my expectations. However, I also read The Last Attempt by Carlos serra and found it even more appealing and gripping than this one. I highly recommend both of them but The Last Attempt was a really nice surprise.

It's about the story of a female freediving champion who died during her last attempt to set a new world record held by her husband, a legend in the sport, but after her death, and even though everyting pointed towards him, and despite heavy scrutiny by the media, no one could establish what actually happened. I was astonished when i read it. Incredible story, so between The Last Attempt and Fatal Depth, i found myself delighted with a lot of good reading.

A magazine article on steroids .......2006-05-07

Fatal Depth offers a neutral report of several accidents, starting with the collision that sunk the Andrea Doria and then moving on to recount mishaps involving deep water scuba diving by recreational divers who want to explore the wreck and bring back artifacts. Some would call deep water diving of this type "extreme" diving (230 feet deep), though aficionados call it technical diving. The reporting of the mishaps themselves is brief since they often occurred while the diver was out of sight of others, but this is supplemented by substantial background information about the diver.

Haberstroh, by trade a reporter and not a diver, has written a book that looks at some of the non-technical issues, such as the boat captain's responsibility to assure the competence of divers who have the requisite certifications or who are accompanied by a reputable instructor. Typical of a reporter writing a story, he presents the issues but does not provide his own editorial opinion.

The failure to report the outcome of the lawsuit that is discussed in the book is annoying, but an online search revealed that the plaintiff lost the case (at least at the trial level) by summary judgment. Whether the case has been appealed is not readily ascertainable by an online search.

While a quick read, it does not compare favorably with Shadow Divers or The Last Dive, both of which are gripping. For someone interested in this genre, it offers enough new information to make it worth reading, and in that case, Fatal Depth would be a good book to borrow from a local library.

Great reference book for technical wreck divers.......2005-08-19

Great book. Lots of accident information as well as the diving history of the wreck. A must have for your reference library. Learn from the mistakes of others.

A Good Read.......2005-03-04

I enjoyed reading this book...for someone that does not dive it certainly is an eye-opener as to how many ways you can get in trouble quick at extreme depths.

Accurate but disappointing.......2005-03-02

I had just finished Shadow Divers when I jumped into Fatal Depth. That's a shame because Shadow Divers so overwhelms FD that a completely unbiased review may not have been possible.

Haberstroh knits together the string of fatal dive incidents using the state of mind of dive boat captain Dan Crowell as the unifying thread. This attempt, though, turns up so little that the incidents really have to stand alone. As such, they seem like little more than incident investigations with perhaps a bit of background color for each of the victims. The author seems to have had no particular agenda and draws no conclusions. Even the status of a lawsuit described in the book's closing chapters is left unresolved.

If you want a STORY, ready Shadow Divers. If you want research material on deep diving fatalities or just cannot get enough of the genre then by all means pick up Fatal Depth.

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