Dark Descent

[sharkybait]

Just wondering if anyone had read this book about the Empress yet???????
Just looking for some diver friendly input before I drag my butt out to pick it up......
Thanx

 

[FreeFloat]

I haven't read it yet, but apparently everyone who has, says they couldn't put it down.

 

[Spectre]

There's a few threads around about it

And yea; it's a great read!

 

[wedivebc]

There's a few threads around about it

And yea; it's a great read!

I read it and would rate it an eight out of ten.
It was a little choppy but covered a lot of ground. It left me really wanting to make the trip.

 

[letterboy]

Really good book not as good as Shadow divers but still really really a good book.

John

 

[idratherbediving]

i concur with jhbryan, dark descent was a great book to read. very informative and entertaining.

 

[Chris Red]

As Freefloat will attest I have got to be the slowest reader... not that I read slowly but just that when you only read a page a day you can really get your moneys worth of entertainment out of a book... specially if it was a loan!

Descent into Darkness is in my must read pile.

Actually what really slows me up is that I'll read a page from one book, then a page from another... an other book that captured my interest... and a very well written one, at that, is
"Torpedo Junction" by Hickman, about the U-boat campaign off Hatteras in early 1942... simply fascinating!

I should have it finished in a year or so - if anyone wants to borrow it

 

[Marvintpa]

The book is fairly decent. Although it does contain a few tales about diving the wreck it's more about the history and controversies that have arisen around it, and less about actually diving it. The descriptions of the wreck itself leave much to be desired.
I have an interest in the wreck because I came to Canada in one of her sister ships, so enjoyed the history and details about the shipping trade of that time, but as a diver I wasn't particularly impressed with the diving portions of it.

Just my .003 cents.

 

[Chris Red]

Could you believe that there's a title
"Descent into Darkness"?
Written about Navy Divers in 1941 cleaning up the Pearl Harbour mess???
No wonder I was scratching my head about it being a compulsive read... it's taken me 9 months to get past Chater 2!
k don't mind me I'll just go back to diving n give up reading altogether! SHeesh!

 

[jerrynuss]

I really was not that enthralled with Dark Descent. There was a lot of history and information but not as much on the diving as I would have liked. I may be biased because I trained one of the divers in the book a few months before she went up there. She was training for the dive there but we did the deep wreck work in Florida and the conditions didn't compare to diving the Empress. Then after she got out on the boat she was star struck by the other guys on the trip and also had some problems with equipment. Basically she was not prepared. Anyway she did get mentioned in the book and contributed some of the photos. She wants to go back and keeps asking me to go but it isn't on my to do list.