James P. Delgado
James P. Delgado, PhD, FRGS, RPA, has led or participated in
shipwreck expeditions around the world. His undersea
explorations include RMS Titanic, the recent discoveries of
Carpathia, the ship that rescued Titanic’s survivors, and
the notorious “ghost ship” Mary Celeste, as well as surveys
of USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, the sunken fleet of
atomic-bombed warships at Bikini Atoll, the polar
exploration ship Maud, wrecked in the Arctic, and the 1846
wreck of the United States naval brig Somers, whose tragic
story inspired Herman Melville’s Billy Budd. His
archaeological work has also included the excavation of
ships and collapsed buildings along the now-buried
waterfront of Gold Rush San Francisco. Delgado is ending his 15-year career as Executive Director
of the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Vancouver, British
Columbia, and in July 2006, takes up a new position as
Executive Director of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.
Previously, he was the head of the U.S. government’s
maritime preservation program and was the maritime historian
for the U.S. National Park Service. When not at the museum,
he is the co-host of The Sea Hunters along with best-selling
author Clive Cussler. The show is now in its fifth season.
Delgado’s other television credits include specials for the
Discovery Channel, National Geographic Explorer, A&E, the
History Channel, and ABC. Delgado’s active participation in
the study and preservation of shipwreck sites and maritime
heritage has included a founding membership in the
International Commission on Monuments and Site (ICOMOS)
committee on underwater cultural heritage and the presidency
of the Council of American Maritime Museums. He also enjoys
a more hands-on approach to preservation, and most recently
led the crew that restored Ben Franklin (PX-15), a 130-ton
oceanographic research submersible originally built in
Switzerland for famed undersea explorer and scientist
Jacques Piccard and most famously employed on a historic
30-day “drift mission” along the eastern seaboard of the
United States in 1969. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of
the Explorers’ Club, Jim is the author or editor of 29 books
and numerous articles, most recently Waterfront: An
Illustrated Maritime Story of Greater Vancouver and
Adventures of a Sea Hunter: In Search of Famous Shipwrecks.
His books Lost Warships: An Archaeological Tour of War at
Sea and Across the Top of the World: The Quest for the
Northwest Passage are both international best-sellers
published simultaneously in North America and Britain. His
other books include The Encyclopedia of Underwater and
Maritime Archaeology; Ghost Fleet: The Sunken Ships of
Bikini Atoll, Pearl Harbor Recalled: New Images from the Day
of Infamy, Great American Ships, To California by Sea: A
Maritime History of the Gold Rush and three books for
children, Wrecks of American Warships, Native American
Shipwrecks, and Shipwrecks of the Westward Movement.
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Series
Books:Across the Top of the World, September 1999
Hardcover
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