Book Review

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

I loooove survival non-fiction. You give me a book about a mountain climbing trip that went awry; a shipwreck; lost in the desert; trapped in a cave; and I am one happy reader. I will bury myself in that book, happy as a rat in a sack of Fritos, for hours. Some of my all time favs from this genre are:

Untamed Seas by Deborah Scaling Kiley
Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales

and of course everything Jon Krakauer has ever written.

So I was pretty excited when I read a review of Fatal Depth in a magazine cousin to the glorious rag Outside. (It was something left at the beach house. Can't remember the magazine name.)

As you know - I hate doing plot synopsis so I'm lifting the dirty work from a customer review at Amazon:

As scuba equipment and technique became increasingly advanced, dives to the "Everest of Scuba Diving", the Wreck of the Andrea Doria, were becoming routine throughout the 90's. Dan Crowell, skipper of the deep dive charter boat "Seeker", had a perfect safety record, repeatedly visiting the site, until the disastrous summers of 1998 and '99, when the "Doria" reasserted her reputation for doom and claimed five divers.

The skeleton details set my imagination on fire. Why is deep sea diving so dangerous? What kinds of trouble do technical divers encounter? Why would anyone risk their life for a plate or cup from the Andrea Doria? What was the Andrea Doria and when did it sink?

I'm happy to report that all of these questions and more are answered in the ably written pages of Fatal Depth. I was, in fact, quite impressed with Joe Haberstroh's ability to weave together the five unrelated stories of diver deaths with the story of the Seeker and the history of the Andrea Doria. It could not have been an easy task, but he carries it off quite well.

The reader learns a lot about the complexities and hazards of deep sea diving, while absorbing the history of the Andrea Doria, plus a good fistful of maritime law. It's the perfect snack book. Crunchy, salty and satisfying. I read it in one day and it was exactly what I hoped ~~ a tasty mind-nosh that doesn't require much chewing. Fatal Depth tastes great - and its great for you too!