 | By: Keith Jessop Binding: Paperback Publisher: Pocket Books ISBN: 0671010484 ISBN-13: 9780671010485 Released: 01 Jun 1999 RRP: Average Rating:  |
This book is well written, easy to read, & simply makes you want to keep on reading. I found it hard to put down. The ending cannot help but stir the emotions. Like a tale of fiction, this story has a twist to its tail.
Highly amusing & funny in places, but also with a serious side, it's clear why this book needed to be written. Read it & you'll see why.
I was in the dive biz for a long time (my wife tells me toooo long), & I bailed out of the offshore scene some 5 years ago. I've got a fair selection of books on Commercial/Offshore Diving & also Salvage Diving & I'm pleased to add Goldfinder to my collection.
I bought the original book on the Edinburgh salvage: "Stalin's Gold" which was an OK read, but after reading it, Mr Jessop didn't come over looking too good ..... & that is an understatement. The writer of that book (a Times' hack callled Barry Penrose) clearly had a problem with Mr Jessop, & also some of the divers, & the Ship itself, & the rest of the ship's crew. Not forgetting the sinister Russians etc, etc... & it showed in what he wrote.
Anyone in the dive business at the time of the salvage couldn't help but pick up bits & pieces about this king of salvage ops. It was a reallly big deal. I knew just three of the dozen or so divers who were involved in the operation, & over 2-3 years following the salvage I got to hear what they had to say about it alll. And it was quite a different setup to that written up in "Stalin's Gold".
Reading Keith Jessop's "Goldfinder" was a real pleasure, & sets the record straight on a number of points. Also Keith's earlier career makes for interesting, & occasionallly very funny reading. His story-telling ability is a good as it comes when telling "sea-stories" about "the good-old-days" of the diving industry: when the North Sea diving business was very young & new, & every dive job was a bit "hit-and-miss", with work progressing in the usual "making it up as you go along" mode. For me, his stories about this particular time in the dive industry bring back some wonderful memories. Scary memories, but good memories...
And never forget what the guys on the Edinburgh salvage did: 850ft down in the Barents sea, diving from a very smalll, & by today's standards, very primitive Dive vessel, using oxy-arc cutting torches to burn their way into the Gold room that was full of unexploded ordnance ....
Hmmm, good stuff methinks. Just a touch hairy... just a touch.
The Edinburgh salvage was then, & remains now, the Ultimate deep-diving salvage attempt ever. And they succeeded. Heroes alll...
Anyone interested in commercial diving, saturation diving, or salvage diving reallly should buy & read this book. It's a thumping good read written by a fellow who's done just about alll you can do in the commercial diving arena.
It doesn't appear to be ghost-written either. So well done Keith.
Excellent book.
Dennis
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