The Salvage of the Century

The Salvage of the Century by Ric Wharton is a fascinating and historically significant account of the deepest and most famous salvage ever carried out by divers (Guinness World Records 2000).

The HMS Edinburgh was torpedoed and sunk in 1942 while returning from escorting a convoy of military equipment to Russia. The Edinburgh was carrying five tons of Russian gold bullion on its way to the USA as payment for the supplies. She sunk in 840 feet of water, beyond the reach of divers and was forgotten until 40 years later when deep diving technology developed for the North Sea oil industry brought the wreck and its treasure into the reach of divers.

The author Ric Wharton, Managing Director of Wharton Williams Ltd., along with his partner Malcolm Williams, funded and led a team of saturation divers who located the wreck in 1981 and succeeded in recovering all the gold bullion. The book chronicles the history of the sinking, the development of the deep diving technology, dealings with the British government, and the methods used to salvage £50,000,000 in gold bullion by Wharton Williams, Ltd. This was the largest and most spectacular salvage operation carried out.

With memorable photos, illuminating timelines, and copies of many original documents and gold schedules, this fascinating book will stir the imagination of all divers and deep-sea enthusiasts.

This is a hard-cover, coffee-table book, 198 pages, with color photos, charts maps, and diagrams. For further information or to order this book (# B0999), please contact Best Publishing Company. Dealer inquiries are invited. Best Publishing can be reached by calling 800.468.1055 or by e-mail: divebooks@bestpub.com.

The captivating island of Santa Catalina enjoys upwards of one million annual visitors. There is so much to see and do at Catalina that planning your trip can be half the fun. Catalina, All You Need To Know, a new book by Joe Belanger, is an all encompassing back pack tour book intended to supply the traveler with all the necessary information to help plan a trip to the island, or it can simply serve as a reference guide during your visit.

The book offers valuable guidance to visitors in areas such as getting to the island, hotels, restaurants, tours, hiking and camping. Also of great interest are the chapters explaining the evolution of Catalina, historical points of interest and Catalina's unspoiled interior lands. The highlight of the book is its colorful diving section. Not only are 56 dive sites covered in detail, but their latitude and longitude coordinates are listed as well, providing easy GPS or Loran C accessibility for boaters. Chapters discussing Catalina dive operators and marine life are also included. As a first, Joe has taken the time to research the history of scuba diving at Catalina, and has shared his findings in a unique, never before done chapter about many of the diving events at Catalina that have helped make diving what it is today.

Catalina, All You Need To Know is available at many western dive retailers or online at www.californiaunderwater.com/catalina. The new book is published by Roundtable Publishing, phone 480-354-1063.