James P. Delgado is a marine archeologist, diver, and writer most widely known as the co-host of the Sea Hunter television series about diving on shipwrecks. In his new book, Adventures of a Sea Hunter, Delgado chronicles and muses upon some of his investigations over the past 15 years at shipwreck sites as far-flung and varied as the South Pacific, Cuba, and San Francisco.

Delgado’s strength lies in relating the history of the wrecks. His passion and his earnest effort to make connections between the wrecks, the lives of those affected by the disasters, and the lives of his readers rings true. Unfortunately, Delgado lacks the craft to adequately weave into his writing the emotional tang that shipwrecks evoke in us – a vague race memory of disaster, loss, mystery, and greed. Sentences like “Inside this turret, the gun crew, like their ship, sleeps for eternity” are bolted onto the history like a part left over after assembly. There are many more awkward bits of text, some unintentionally funny, such as “from the here and now to eternity” in the context of the Pearl Harbor wrecks, and the mystifying “a battle that literally changed the face of history.”

Knowing something of Delgado’s prolific writing, and the 30-and-growing episodes of Sea Hunter, the reader approaches the book warily. There is a nagging unease that some of this material is recycled and/or is little more than spun off from the television franchise. Indeed, a chapter about the wrecks near Bikini Atoll is the subject of an entire book released by Delgado in 1996. Further, eight of the investigations are also the topics of Sea Hunter epsiodes. Finally, the last chapter, imaginatively called “Conclusion,” reads as a four-page shill for upcoming episodes.

Despite these caveats, Adventures of a Sea Hunter will appeal to diving and adventure buffs, vicarious or otherwise. History readers may have to wade through some chaff, but what lies under that is often sound and interesting.