Deep Descent

On a foggy july evening in 1956, the italian cruise linerandrea doria, bound for new york, was struck broadside by another vessel. in eleven hours, she would sink nearly 250 feet to the murky atlantic ocean floor. thanks to a daring rescue operation, only 51 of more than 1,700 people died in the tragedy. but theandrea doria is still taking lives. considered the mt. everest of diving, theandrea doria is the ultimate deepwater wreck challenge. over the years, a small but fanatical group of extreme scuba divers have investigated theandrea doria, pushing themselves to the very limits of human endurance to explore her -and not all have returned. diver kevin mcmurray takes you inside this elite club with a hard, honest look at those who go deeper, farther, and closer to the edge than others would ever dream.deep descent is the riveting true story of the human spirit overcoming human frailty and of fearsome, mortal risks traded for a hard-core adrenaline rush. chronicling these adventures in his page-turning narrative and in dozens of dramatic photos, mcmurray draws us deeper into the cold heart of the unforgiving sea, giving us a powerful vision of a place to which few will ever have the skills -or the courage -to go. review clive cussler a compelling masterwork of the greatest shipwreck killer in maritime history. mcmurray involves you in the life-and-death drama as if you are actually diving in the depths.library journal exciting and powerful.the philadelphia inquirer this is a book you will have a hard time putting down. page after page leads you through adventure, mystery, suspense, and acts of heroism.kirkus reviews mcmurray knows his stuff...compelling...full of high drama in low places. kevin f. mcmurray is an award-winning journalist and photographer whose work has appeared inthe new york times, new york magazine, outside, yankee, men's journal, the sunday times (london),rock and ice, cigar aficionado, and other publications. an avid outdoor adventurer, mcmurray is an expert scuba diver and former world record holder for swimming around manhattan. he lives in brewster, new york, with his wife and two daughters. excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved. chapter oneit is not death, but dying, which is terrible.henry fieldingwearing close to two-hundred pounds of scuba gear, gary gilligan was anxious to make his ungainly entry into the rolling seas of the atlantic. the neoprene dry suit and his heavy undergarments had him sweating bullets under the hot july-afternoon sun. prior to his giant step outward and down from the deck of the dive boatrv wahoo, gary glanced around and surveyed his surroundings with only the narrow range of vision that his dive mask afforded him.land had long since disappeared over the horizon, and no other vessel was in sight. the glare of the sun reflecting off the glassy seas made him wince behind his faceplate. he of course was aware of the activity around him. getting into the water is always a major hassle for deep divers, and attendance by crew members and fellow divers prior to entry is a necessity, not a luxury. still, it was tough for gary gilligan to be patient, overburdened as he was with gear, not to mention with anxiety. gary had to remind himself to be cool: getting all bent out of shape before entering the water was a bad idea, he knew. it had a way of biting you back in the ass.gary tried to maintain his balance, but he felt encumbered with all the hardware, encased from head to toe in the suffocating dry suit. it was not easy what with the three-foot swells gently lifting up the fifty-five-foot fiberglass boat, only to drop it back down into the following trough, making the deck of the vessel an unstable platform. the cerulean skies high overhead, gary noticed, still had contrails vectoring eastward to europe, left behind by the streaking concorde whose sonic