Taking the Sea: Perilous Waters, Sunken Ships, and the True Story of the Legendary Wrecker Captains

"Kirkus Reviews" summarized: "Maritime historian Powers ("Treasure Ship" and others) offers a series of vignettes from the golden age of American marine salvage. It extended from the end of the Civil War to the decade following World War I. Sail was merging with steam, wooden hulls with iron ones, but as the nation expanded westward in the wake of the Forty-Niners, the burgeoning demand for commercial transport, in advance of creeping railroads, put all manner of ships to work under good ma...