Amazon.com
As a young boy, Keith Jessop dreamed of leaving the Yorkshire, England, mill town of Keighley behind to sail the seas in search of treasure. Four decades later, he found his chest of gold: 431 gold bars, to be exact, from the HMS Edinburgh, 800 feet down in the Arctic Sea. Jessop tells his rags-to-riches story in Goldfinder.

From his first snorkel dives as a Royal Marine commando and his first scuba dive--when he could very easily have died--Jessop was hooked. He began collecting equipment and spending every nonworking moment either in the water or heading to and from it. He quit his job--much to the consternation of his long-suffering wife, Mildred--and began working as a salvage diver going after nonferrous metal fittings from shipwrecks. Working his first wreck, the SS. Pollux II, "brought back memories of my childhood fantasies to me, but this was the real thing, almost as good as diving on a galleon full of pieces of eight." Later, he and his partners recovered over 200 tons of copper from the Johanna Thorden, earning themselves the nickname "The Copper Kings" in the process. Between wrecks Jessop turned to saturation diving (where divers stay in a pressurized environment for days on end) on offshore oil platforms.

Time not spent in the water was spent doing research, using both alcohol ("the research often involved nothing more than buying the local lobstermen a pint. They'd point out sites where they'd lost lobster pots, a good indicator of something unusual on the sea-bed") and archives. His research revealed plenty of surprises--such as the day he was left alone in a room with what turned out to be the cargo manifest of the Lusitania. Despite the claims of the British government, the document indicated that the Lusitania was indeed carrying a large cargo of armaments. "I was unsure if I was being leaked a story the official wished to see published or being tested on my ability to keep a secret.... I've kept my silence until now."

Having gained decades of experience, Jessop assembled the team to go after the Edinburgh, which was sunk in 1942 while carrying 10 tons of Soviet gold. Miles of red tape later, on September 16, 1981, his dreams came true. "I cradled the bar in my hands, holding it as tenderly as a baby--a very heavy one." Recovering the gold was just the beginning, however, and Jessop recounts his later troubles in (sometimes tedious) detail. Co-written by Neil Hanson (whose book The Custom of the Sea was a 2000 Amazon.com Editor's Choice), Goldfinder makes great reading for divers and dreamers alike. --Sunny Delaney Book Description
The True Story of $100 Million in Lost Russian Gold -and One Man's Lifelong Quest to Recover It
Keith Jessop and Neil Hanson

"Outstanding, inspiring, and beautifully told. No true tale of the sea makes better reading."-Clive Cussler

Here is the true tale of a small-time salvage diver, the crushing depths of the sea, and the richest prize ever found-$100 million in pure gold. Follow salvage diver Keith Jessop as he battles nature, governments, traitors, salvage monopolies, and, of course, lawyers to claim the grand prize of wrecks-the HMS Edinburgh. Filled with ten tons of Russian gold, the ship had been sought by many, but never found. Through unyielding determination, extraordinary physical prowess, and keen intelligence, Keith Jessop risks all to reach his final destination, and keeps readers on the edge of their seats. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Reality of Salvage Work
A good read, I was glued to the page turner till 1am last night. This book displays the real world of salvage work, the burocracy you have to work against, the pitfalls, the ways wrecks are found, the research needed and where to find it.
As for the main story of the Edinburg, it is a classic example of a man too focused to worry about the non-research details. His lack of tax planning, failure to background check his partners, and his gruff demeanor set the story up for a sad ending.
Its a real world study of the salvage industry and a great read, but its real life.Don't expect a Dirk Pitt ending with him getting the girl, the gold and the respect of his peers.

Fascinating and captivating all the way through
I'm always fascinated with stories of shipwrecks and lost treasure and this book definitely quenches my thirst for both.An amazing story of Keith Jessop's plight in recovering ten tons of Russion gold that went down in the belly of the HMS Edinburg during WWII in the cold Arctic Sea. I especially liked the early part of the book where Keith spends some time giving you the background on how he got started in underwater salvage.I especially enjoyed his insight into some of the legal issues involved in running a salvage operation.Keith takes you through every step of his long journey in planning for and putting together a team of experts to execute and oversee the actual recovery of the gold.The book is full of suspense, as you don't know what will happen next, which inevitably keeps you glued to each turning page.At some times Keith goes into a lot of detail, but this was necessary for the reader to get an appreciation for the levels of frustration he most likely experienced while dealing with the bureaucracy.He also pays tribute to the lost sailors aboard the HMS Edinburg through his heartfelt synopsis of the events that led up to its tragic demise and how his team of professionals handled their uncovered remains.If you like stories of sunken treasure, no matter how big or small, this book has got you covered.You won't be dissapointed.Keith's way ofdepicting the events was so clear and vivid that at times I swear I could smell salt in the air.

inspirational
an amazing book, Keith Jessops passion of diving and particuliarly wreck salvage, leave indelible memories.
the books balance is great, enough early details to establish his character, the book really picks up pace with the various wreck salvages leading up to the edinburgh, the background and research is well documented, as are the details of setting up expeditions for locating and then salvaging the wrecks.

One of the best marine Archology books I've read
I wish I found the Gold.
Clive Cussler was right,this was a great Marine Archology book.
It was intresting,how the diver started his carere.I found the History of the Edinburgh very intresteding.One of the best marine Archology books I ever read.

An incredible story of perseverance and daring!
Keith Jessop's achievement in successfully salvaging the treasure of the HMS Edinburgh parallels that of Tommy Thompson, who found and salvaged the gold from the 1857 wreck of the SS Central America. Jessop's book GOLDFINDER compares favorably to Gary Kinder's book SHIP OF GOLD; both books tell the full story of how the vessels (Edinburgh and Central America, respectively) came to grief, and both excel in their descriptions of the background and personal details of the men who would ultimately bring their treasures to the surface.

Jessop's accomplishment is particularly remarkable in that his expedition did not utilize ROVs, but instead relied upon surface-supplied divers who descended more than 800 feet to the bottom of the frigid Barents Sea to penetrate the armored bomb room of the sunken Edinburgh, retrieving her cargo of gold bars while enduring the danger and privations of saturation diving.

Fast-moving and charmingly told, the author brings his unique sense of humor and adventurous spirit to life on every page, resulting in a book that is engaging and fascinating. If you enjoy a grand adventure, and especially if you find interest in tales of shipwreck, diving and marine salvage, don't miss GOLDFINDER! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent guide to current U-boat wreck sites.
This book is one of the 3 Pisces "Dive Into History" series and is a very well researched and informative book on present-day U-boats wrecks complete with excellent underwater color photography, line drawingsand wartime historical photographs. It covers the events leading up to andthe circumstances of the sinkings of several U-boats. From the standpointof the maritime archaeologist, the U-boat historian, or anyone interestedin the history of war beneath the waves, especially technical scuba divers,it is a must. The other 2 books in the series I have read,"Warships" and "U.S. Submarines" are equally essentialand well done.No submarine book collection is complete without VolumesNo.2 and No.3 (U.S. Submarines and U-Boats).

I have 32 differentbooks concerning the U-boats in WWI and WWII in my collection, and some ofthe most striking images of U-boats are to be found in this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Customer Reviews (16)

Great book...
I'm an avid reader of anything related to scuba diving and freediving. This book filled my expectations. However, I also read The Last Attempt by Carlos serra and found it even more appealing and gripping than this one. I highly recommend both of them but The Last Attempt was a really nice surprise.

It's about the story of a female freediving champion who died during her last attempt to set a new world record held by her husband, a legend in the sport, but after her death, and even though everyting pointed towards him, and despite heavy scrutiny by the media, no one could establish what actually happened. I was astonished when i read it. Incredible story, so between The Last Attempt and Fatal Depth, i found myself delighted with a lot of good reading.

A magazine article on steroids
Fatal Depth offers a neutral report of several accidents, starting with the collision that sunk the Andrea Doria and then moving on to recount mishaps involving deep water scuba diving by recreational divers who want to explore the wreck and bring back artifacts.Some would call deep water diving of this type "extreme" diving (230 feet deep), though aficionados call it technical diving.The reporting of the mishaps themselves is brief since they often occurred while the diver was out of sight of others, but this is supplemented by substantial background information about the diver.

Haberstroh, by trade a reporter and not a diver, has written a book that looks at some of the non-technical issues, such as the boat captain's responsibility to assure the competence of divers who have the requisite certifications or who are accompanied by a reputable instructor.Typical of a reporter writing a story, he presents the issues but does not provide his own editorial opinion.

The failure to report the outcome of the lawsuit that is discussed in the book is annoying, but an online search revealed that the plaintiff lost the case (at least at the trial level) by summary judgment.Whether the case has been appealed is not readily ascertainable by an online search.

While a quick read, it does not compare favorably with Shadow Divers or The Last Dive, both of which are gripping.For someone interested in this genre, it offers enough new information to make it worth reading, and in that case, Fatal Depth would be a good book to borrow from a local library.

Great reference book for technical wreck divers
Great book. Lots of accident information as well as the diving history of the wreck. A must have for your reference library. Learn from the mistakes of others.

A Good Read
I enjoyed reading this book...for someone that does not dive it certainly is an eye-opener as to how many ways you can get in trouble quick at extreme depths.

Accurate but disappointing
I had just finished Shadow Divers when I jumped into Fatal Depth.That's a shame because Shadow Divers so overwhelms FD that a completely unbiased review may not have been possible.

Haberstroh knits together the string of fatal dive incidents using the state of mind of dive boat captain Dan Crowell as the unifying thread.This attempt, though, turns up so little that the incidents really have to stand alone.As such, they seem like little more than incident investigations with perhaps a bit of background color for each of the victims.The author seems to have had no particular agenda and draws no conclusions.Even the status of a lawsuit described in the book's closing chapters is left unresolved.

If you want a STORY, ready Shadow Divers.If you want research material on deep diving fatalities or just cannot get enough of the genre then by all means pick up Fatal Depth. ... Read more