Raise the Titanic

The Sicilian Project is the undercover plan of the decade. It is undoubtedly the best-kept secret since the atomic bomb. And it's the President's baby. If successful, it will create a defense network that will insure America's security from foreign attack for the foreseeable future.

The sole hitch is that the project requires a quantity of Byzantium, an extremely rare element. In fact, it looks as though the only Byzantium in the world lies in the hold of R.M.S. Titanic, sunk in 1912 and still resting more than twelve thousand feet deep in the North Atlantic.

The task is simple enough: Raise the Titanic! The man in charge of the mission is Dirk Pitt, jack-of-all-trades and master of-most. Using highly sophisticated submersible equipment, Pitt sets to work at his Herculean job. The presence of two Russian spies doesn't help, nor does the intervention of one very nasty lady, Hurricane Amanda. For balance, however, there is one very sweet lady who doesn't in the least resemble your average marine archaeologist.

Clive Cussler has accomplished a remarkable feat in blending high melodrama with exhaustively sound scientific research; the Titanic could be raised today. Mr. Cussler's novel will satisfy the connoisseur of that doomed liner's incredible history, and it will grip anyone with a taste for pure adventure.

About the Author

Clive Cussler is the author of over twenty-five internationally bestselling books, including the Dirk Pitt adventure series, the NUMA FILES novels and the Oregon Files Adventures.

He grew up in Alhambra, California. He later attended Pasadena City College for two years, but then enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War where he served as an aircraft mechanic and flight engineer in the Military Air Transport Service. Upon his discharge, he became a copywriter and later creative director for two leading ad agencies. At that time, he wrote and produced radio and television commercials that won numerous international awards, one at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Cussler began writing in 1965 and published his first novel featuring Dirk Pitt in 1973. His first non-fiction work, The Sea Hunters, was released in 1996. Because of this work the Board of Governors of the Maritime College, State University of New York considered The Sea Hunters in lieu of a Ph.D. thesis and awarded Cussler a Doctor of Letters degree in May of 1997. It was the first time since the College was founded in 1874 that such a degree was bestowed.

Cussler is the founder the National Underwater & Marine Agency, (NUMA), a non-profit organisation that dedicates itself to American maritime and naval history. In addition to being Chairman of NUMA, Cussler is a fellow in both the Explorers Club of New York and the Royal Geographic Society in London.

A noted collector of classic automobiles, Cussler owns 85 of the finest examples of custom coachwork and 50's convertibles to be found anywhere. They are garaged near Golden, Colorado. Today, Cussler divides his time between the mountains of Colorado and the deserts of Arizona.