Dragon Sea is the story of an underwater archaeological dig that took place off
the coast of Vietnam. For those of you not up on archaeology and its
hierarchies, marine archaeology is typically held in low regard by its
land-based brothers -- the provenance of adventurers and Indiana Jones-type
wannabees, one step above treasure hunting.
Understanding this is crucial to understanding the main conflict of Dragon
Sea. When the leader of Oxford's underwater archaeology department, Mensun
Bound (you might remember him as the host of the old Discovery Channel show, Lost
Ships), is approached by a known treasure hunter, Ong Soo Hin, and asked to
to help him raise precious porcelain cargo from a sunken 15th Century junk to
sell at auction, the obvious answer for him is to say no and avoid further
castigation from colleagues. The problem is that the wreck lies in deep water,
beyond the range of the volunteer scuba divers he typically uses. This wreck
can only be worked by saturation divers, earning big bucks and with a world of
expensive technology above them, all of which Ong is willing to pay for --
along with the promise that Bound will be allowed carry out his archaeological
investigations at the same time.
Bound puts his reputation on the line and accepts Ong's offer, realizing
there's no other way that this historically significant ship could ever be
excavated. As much as Bound is reliant on Ong, though, so is Ong reliant to him
-- unless Bound reports that he was allowed to carry out a full-scale
investigation of the ship, the government of Vietnam won't allow Ong to remove
the cargo for sale outside the country. The fortunes of the archaeologist and
the treasure hunter are intertwined in the first such collaboration ever.
The potential problems are obvious from the start: the operation costs Ong tens
of thousands of dollars a day and he wants it completed as quickly as
possible. Every day that Bound spends studying the wreck, is another day that
the tab goes up. And, course, unexpected problems pop up all along the way.
It's a great story with a great premise. The author does have some annoying
habits, such as ending each mini-chapter on some kind of cliff-hanging note,
most of which turn out to be red herrings. He also has some strange ideas about
diving, such as how the air in a scuba tank is compressed as the diver goes
deeper. But these are relatively minor affairs. All in all, Dragon Sea
is an excellent read.
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