The Shipwreck Hunter

Winner of the Mountbatten Award for Best Book, 2018 David Mearns has discovered some of the world's most fascinating and elusive shipwrecks. From the mighty battlecruiser HMS Hood to the crumbling wooden skeletons of Vasco da Gama's 16th century fleet, David has searched for and found dozens of sunken vessels in every ocean of the world. The Shipwreck Hunter is an account of David's most intriguing and fascinating finds. It details both the meticulous research and the mid-ocean stamina and courage required to find a wreck miles beneath the sea, as well as the moving human stories that lie behind each of these oceanic tragedies. Combining the derring-do of Indiana Jones with the precision of a surgeon, in The Shipwreck Hunter David Mearns opens a porthole into the shadowy depths of the ocean.

US-born marine scientist, researcher and deep-sea shipwreck hunter David Mearns OAM has found and filmed some of the world's most famous and controversial shipwrecks; notoriously difficult wrecks that others predicted would never be found or their mysteries solved. Over his 30-year career he has led the research and discovery of 24 major shipwrecks achieving an overall success rate of 89%, and his company Blue Water Recoveries has been awarded three Guinness World Records, including one for the deepest shipwreck ever found at 5,762 metres. David is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers Club.