Book Review – Submerged: Adventures of America’s Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team
Some of us will have dived in Chuuk Lagoon, Federated States of Micronesia, and marvelled at the remains of massive WWII warships. Others may have ventured into the dark, cold depths of the Great Lakes in America where countless vessels have foundered or explored the labyrinth of submerged caves in Florida.
Few of us, if any, will have made dozens of dives to inspect and map the USS Arizona, sunk in 
Pearl Harbour, or surveyed the Prinz Eugen, a German cruiser devasted by a nuclear test and sunk at Bikini Atoll. Similarly, few will have braved a dive to the wreck of the Confederate ship, CSS Alabama, resting in 65 metres of water, and in treacherous currents, off the coast of Cherbourg, France. (What was it doing in the English Channel?) However, for Daniel Lenihan, as an American Park Ranger and Head of the Submerged Cultural Resources Unit (SCRU) these tasks have been a job and a passion.
Submerged: Adventures of America’s Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team by Daniel Lenihan is “a collection of adventures, triumphs, failures and close calls” (p.11) within some of the most challenging dive sites in the world. What emerges from the book is that shipwrecks and underwater sites are seldom benign. They are places where simple, cumulative misjudgements can end in tragedy.
The 22 chapters present both an autobiography and a chronology of how Daniel developed as a diver. From a devil-may-care cave diver to representing the USA on the International Committee of the Underwater Cultural Heritage of ICOMOS; a UNESCO affiliated body. However, the book is more than a series of tales about locating and mapping wrecks, preserving and documenting underwater sites. Daniel Lenihan takes you to these places. You can almost feel the teeth chattering cold of Lake Superior, the smell of fuel oil in Pearl Harbour and see the entanglements waiting for you inside the submerged powerhouse at the bottom of the Amistad Dam, Texas.
However, I suspect Daniel regards one of his greatest achievements has been in the protection now given to submerged sites. He states:
“Scientific, legal and ethical standards that apply to archaeological sites on land should also apply to archaeology under water. Archaeology for gain, by selling gold and other materials taken from wrecks for personal or corporate profit, is not acceptable. Nor is any indirect involvement by archaeologists in activities that foster a market in such antiquities” (p. 161.)
If I have a criticism of Submerged it is minor. Often Daniel Lenihan appears to be speaking to the initiated – to those familiar with the people and places, organisations and technical procedures he describes. However, this is dwarfed by the insights and commitment he displays. The book is well worth reading.
- Submerged: Adventures of America’s Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team (2002)
- New York: Newmarket Press
- By Daniel Lenihan
- ISBN 1557045054 287 pages
About Daniel Lenihan:
Daniel obtained his MA in Anthropology from Florida State University in 1973. He led the US National Parks Service Submerged Cultural Resources Unit (SCRU) for 25 years from 1980. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife Barbara.
Daniel has co-authored three books with the actor Gene Hackman:
Justice for None (2004) St Martin’s Press, Escape from Andersonville (2008) St Martin’s Press, Wake of the Perdido (2012) William Morrow.
Find out more about Professor Fred Lockwood, who is also a published author, at www.fredlockwood.co.uk.
