Graveyards of the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Bikini Island – Robert D. Ballard
This book was a big disappointment. It’s not – as I thought it would be – about finding and exploring all the ships and planes lost during the war in the Pacific. It’s a survey of the battles, with lots of original photographs of the action (very grainy, especially when blown up large, but very moving at the same time), and one or two tiny photos – not even taken on Ballard expeditions – of one or two of the ships mentioned. As a history text it’s interesting but nothing particularly new or groundbreaking, but as an underwater exploration journal it’s a non-event.
The best underwater photo in the book is on the cover, and only in the first chapter does Ballard mention the process of searching for and examining a deep-ocean shipwreck. I think this is either Robert D Ballard or National Geographic’s efforts to cash in on his reputation as a deep sea explorer – not cool. I’d give it a skip.
If you really want to buy it, do so here.
