Submerged is more a tale of adventure than archaeology. Retired National Park Service underwater archaeologist Dan Lenihan relates the exciting and dangerous work of the nation’s first underwater archaeology team. Started by Lenihan in 1976, the Park Service team developed some of the first techniques for preserving and documenting underwater historic sites from Florida to Alaska to the South Pacific.
In frigid Lake Superior, the team studied shipwrecks off Isle Royale National Park. In balmy Hawaii, they were the first expedition to explore and videotape the U.S.S. Arizona in Pearl Harbor. At Bikini Atoll, the team surveyed the ships sunk by H-bomb tests in the 1950s. In the desert Southwest, they documented sites covered by reservoirs. Off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, they explored a World War II Japanese submarine.
Some of these projects were very dangerous and the team has had its share of close calls, even recovering the bodies of drowned divers. Diving into Yellowstone Lake at 8,000 feet elevation is a challenge only the most experienced diver would try. Lenihan depicts the team’s disciplined professionalism and its passion for extreme diving in order to recover data, the real treasure of underwater archaeology. Submerged combines archaeology, history, and diving in a fascinating tale spanning half the globe.
