Miscellaneous Blogs
Book Review: Pirate Hunters (2015)

It sounds like the stuff of children’s story books: Caribbean pirates fighting a pitched battle with the Royal Navy in the seventeenth century, modern day treasure hunters searching for the pirate shipwreck, inter personal tension amongst the searching team and a race against time. It’s the story of a merchant ship captain who “stole the great ship he commanded, the Golden Fleece, and embarked on a piracy rampage, a genuine good guy gone bad in the 1680s, the Golden Age of Piracy.” (p.4). What’s more, it’s all true.
Pirate Hunters (2015) by Robert Kurson tells the story of how three very different men, Tracy Bowden, John Chatterton and John Mattera, joined forces to search for a legendary pirate ship. A ship commanded by Captain Joseph Bannister; but it’s not a simple or straight forward story. Diving in remote Caribbean waters to search from an ancient shipwreck may sound glamorous – but it’s not. Harsh and unrelenting living and working conditions would take their toll on young men, let alone middle aged men. When this is combined with the steady haemorrhaging of funds, the constant threat from other treasure hunters and imminent changes in the law that would end treasure hunting, it creates a toxic cocktail.
Robert Kurson vividly captures the tension within and friction between team members, as well as the highs and lows of the whole expedition. He reveals how painstaking searches in library archives around the world, understanding Captain Joseph Bannister and the Pirate Code, together with years of methodical searching enabled them to eventually find the wreck site.
Pirate Hunters certainly tells a dramatic and intriguing story of the life and career of Captain Joseph Bannister – and it is an amazing story. From seizing the ship he was commanding to his initial capture. His audacious escapes from captivity, pitched battles against the Royal Navy, to his apparent hanging from the yard arm of HMS Drake in 1687. However, we are left to wonder ‘was the man hung really Joseph Bannister. Would such a man have allowed himself to be found so easily and so meekly arrested? Why he was hung and his body thrown overboard within miles of the British Governors residence rather than tried and convicted in a court of law?’ You can decide.
An engaging feature of the book is the way Robert Kurson weaves the story of Joseph Bannister with pen portraits of the three main characters. He also supplements the book with numerous photographs and charts, maps and sketches, as well as notes on his sources and an extensive index.
Epilogue: In many children’s story books they all live happily ever after. Unfortunately this is not true of the salvage of the Golden Fleece. Disputes arose between the salvors which resulted in legal action. At the time Pirate Hunters was published the action was ongoing.
Pirate Hunters (2015)
- by Robert Kurson
- Publisher – Elliott and Thompson Limited
- 306 pp
- ISBN 9781783962198
Robert Kurson was awarded a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin and a degree in law from Harvard Law School. His award winning stories have appeared in Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine and Esquire.
Other novels include Shadow Divers (2004), Crashing Through (2007) and Rocket Men (2018). Robert lives in Chicago.
Find out more about the reviewer, Professor Fred Lockwood, who is also a published author at www.fredlockwood.co.uk.
Blogs
Sharks, Shipwrecks, and Sea Turtles: My Boston Sea Rovers Adventure

by Mia DaPonte
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a conference called the Boston Sea Rovers Symposium, where I met many different people. I was astonished by the presentations and how we can help. Today, I’m going to explain more about the Boston Sea Rovers conference.
As I mentioned, I met many different people. I met Dan Dolan, who I’ll talk more about in my next blog. He told me he could take me to the New England Aquarium rehab center—which isn’t open to the public—to see the behind-the-scenes work. I also met Jenn Sellitti, who gave an amazing presentation at the film festival about discovering an old ship named Le Lyonnais. She wrote a cool book about the ship, The Adriatic Affair, which my mom is reading. She even offered to take me on a dive in New Jersey to recover an anchor! Jenn and her team love finding underwater boat parts and anchors.

Mia with Jenn Sellitti
I also got a picture with Cristian Dimitrius, who’s known for his photography and cinematography for National Geographic. And I met Greg Skomal, who is a marine biologist—just like I want to be! He’s a white shark expert, and I loved his presentation on Jaws: Fact vs. Fiction.

Mia with Cristian Dimitrius
We attended many different presentations at the conference, but I was especially inspired by the underwater terrariums. These H2O terrariums are designed for underwater farms, where plants grow and thrive under a bubble-like protection system. I was also fascinated by the coral restoration project. The presenter explained that millions of corals are getting sick and dying, but we can help by cleaning up the ocean and avoiding toxic waste. She shared that they’ve developed a medicine that sticks to corals, kind of like toothpaste, to help heal them. They’re also trying to save coral by removing young ones, growing them in labs, and reintroducing them to prevent disease. This technique is working, but there’s still a long way to go. We all can pitch in to help save coral reefs and our beautiful ocean.
My absolute favorite part of the conference was the film festival. Chris from Dive On It Scuba let my mom and me sit in the front row with all the Sea Rovers and interns. My favorite presentation was Jenn’s—she talked about the deep ocean and discovering all kinds of things. Cristian also presented at the festival, showing a National Geographic video he filmed about baby turtles hatching on the beach. The video followed their journey to the ocean, where they had to dodge not just birds but even crocodiles waiting in the water!
The Boston Sea Rovers was an amazing experience. I can’t wait to go back next year and share my new blog. Thanks for reading—until next time!
Blogs
Making a Splash: My Path to Becoming a Master Scuba Diver at 12

Meet Mia Daponte, New England’s youngest female Master Scuba Diver and Scubaverse.com’s latest blogger!
Hi, I’m Mia DaPonte, and this is my first blog! I am New England’s youngest female master scuba diver. I did my training in Jamestown Rhode Island and I’m 12 years old.
I’m also black belt in karate, and I also play soccer, basketball, and love to race my sailboat named “Beluga”. My journey to become a master diver was amazing, not all of it was easy but with the help of my friends and family they supported me so much.
When I turned ten years old, I wanted to scuba dive for my Birthday. After learning diving in the cold murky waters near my home, I wanted to start my training for this Master Diver certification. I met my instructor Seamus on my first day of diving. He was a very good influence on me and always supported me. He taught me everything I know about diving.
I also got to go to new tropical places and dive for fun. We went places like Puerto Rico, Punta Cana, Bermuda, and Bahamas. For the first time I could see far. I saw stingrays, lion fish, coral reefs, tropical fish, and lots of other animals. My favorite animal that I saw was an octopus.
Finally, it was time for my certification trip. The trip came so fast, and I eventually succeeded. In February, I went down to Cozumel Mexico and went diving at Blue Angel Resort. To get my certification, I had to do a deep dive of a max depth of 60ft, and I had to do rescue training. I also had to do an online e-learning test to qualify for this certification.
On the first day I only worked in the pool to practice and perfect rescue techniques for the next day. It was fun putting the online learning to reality. The first part felt harder than the second because I didn’t have as much room in the pool as the open ocean. On the second day, we did it in the ocean. It was hard for me to do the rescue breaths, and bring the adult diver from the bottom of the ocean to the surface. But I was able to do it after hard work.
Cozumel was a lot of fun. We made so many friends down there and hope to see them again. Diving down there was truly magical. I can’t wait to go back someday.
After hard work and dedication, I was able to achieve this accomplishment. It took me 2 years of studying and practicing, but in the end it all paid off. I can’t wait to share my next adventure with you.
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