Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria

After reading "Shadow Divers", I was drawn to read more about the people and about diving the Andrea Doria. "Deep Descent" is a well-written account of the people and dangers of deep wreck diving on the Andrea Doria by an author who has personally dived the wreck several times and interviewed all of the significant players. Once I started, it was hard to put this book down. It is a great read for diver and non-diver alike. The focus is on the personalities and the emotions driving those involved and how they were a factor in many of the deaths for this dangerous dive. It recounts interesting personalities of the dive boat captains and key Doria divers, their competition, and their concerns. It includes both sides of many issues whose schisms are clear in some of the other books. It is not a travelogue of the ship itself nor is it very technical -- neither detracts from the enjoyment of the book and allows it to retain its appeal for non-divers. He also talks about how advances in diving gases and equipment have made such deep dives safer and reachable for less experienced divers, yet divers continue to die for many of the same fundamental reasons -- driven to the limits of their abilities and beyond. If you want a book on the technical aspects of deep wreck diving, or accounts of the scenery of the wreck, this is not your book. Otherwise, you will find this a very enjoyable read.

For those of us who will never witness a deep sea wreck, we can vicariously experience the rush of such an adventure through Kevin McMurray's engaging writing. As an eyewitness of the Andrea Doria shipwreck, the author pulls us into the depths and within the hull of the Grand Dame of the sea. His eyewitness descriptions, along with those of other divers, reveal the inner voices of master divers like no other diving accounts I have read. Mr. McMurray journalistic skills brings me on a sentimental descent without the risks of the "raptures" of the sea. Pierette Domenica Simpson

I agree with several of the other reviewers with regard to the page-turning quality of this book. A fascinating, deadly, frightening, solemn, lesson-worthy book about scuba diving, its dangers and appeal. I am a scuba diver who is extremely conservative and would never dream of diving to the depth these people had to dive to bring up china and other artifacts from the sunken Andrea Doria. I am in awe of the bravery and expertise that it takes to do such a deep and complicated wreck dive, but I was also very well warned that, even the best divers, with hundreds of dives to their credit, ended up dead diving this wreck. The Andrea Doria has captured the imagination of many divers. It was heartbreaking and frightening to see how quickly good, practised divers lost their lives in their pursuit of "knicknacks". This book is a warning to all divers, and a can't-put-down read for everyone.

Kevin McMurray gives readers a glimpse into the real-life adventures of divers who brave the cold, dark waters of the Atlantic to visit the wreck of the Andrea Doria. The author's research is sound, the information he presents on the physiology of hyperbaric medicine and technical diving techniques is accurate, and his portraits of the men and women whose lives and work are most identified with Doria diving seem fair and unbiased.Comparisons between Deep Descent and Bernie Chowdhury's recent book The Last Dive are inevitable, since both cover the experiences of people who have lost their lives diving deep wrecks. In my opinion, McMurray's book is the more readable and his coverage of the technology associated with the sport are presented in a more organized (and less repetitive) way. Not that Chowdhury's book isn't good--simply keep in mind that reviewers who like it better than Deep Descent are expressing an opinion, not a truth.Yes, there are several textual errors in McMurray's book that should have been noticed by the copy editor, but they are few in number and don't detract from the overall story. I thoroughly enjoy each book written by Doria pioneer Gary Gentile, despite the copy errors (in fact, I recommend Gentile's Andrea Doria: Dive to an Era for some truly gripping accounts of the author's own dives into the bowels of the great liner).I can recommend Deep Descent without hesitation to every diver who has, or wants to, dive any shipwreck at any depth at any time. Sadly, some of the most valuable lessons for technical divers are learned by examining the fatal mistakes made by others.

This is a great book about diving the Andrea Doria dealing mostly with the deaths that have occured and how they happened. If you have been around this type of diving for awhile you will recognize most of the people mentioned and quoted (Billy Deans, John Chatterton, Gary Gentile and so on). The deaths and the events leading up to them are described in graphic detail including several photos of the dead divers being recovered. Kevin McMurray goes into great detail in terms of analyzing the accidents including what boat they were diving on, who they were diving with, type of gas being used, type of equipment, the dive plan and such. No attempt was made to sugar coat the tragic events, just the hard details and facts with enough background information on each diver to help you better understand the complete picture.This book was definetly not written for or about recreational diving. No single tank air dives on pretty tropical reefs and 82 degree water. This book is about hard core wreck divers pushing the limits in deep cold water with poor vis and strong currents. If you enjoyed 'Last Dive' then you will surely like this book. I know that I couldn't put the book down.