Shipwreck Stories - Softcover

Not everybody is aware that the ships that rounded the South African coast over the past five centuries are as closely linked to the history of South Africa as gold and diamonds. They were treasures then, they are all treasures today. The difference is that about 3000 ships were lost rounding the Cape of Good Hope some centuries ago on their way to and from the Spice Islands of the East. It has taken a rare brand of adventurer to discover the undersea locations of many of them and Al Venter and his friends detail their activities. Following War Stories, Shark Stories and African Stories in the series, this book about shipwrecks and diving will make riveting reading like all of Al J. Venter's books. There are hundreds of illustrations, sketches, photos, diagrams, plans as well as five color sections. The book runs to 30 chapters and is the fourth in Al Venter’s series of Southern African “stories”. Pulling together with a bunch of friends, Venter has created a book on shipwrecks that is both fascinating and beautiful.

Al J. Venter is a specialist military writer and has had 50 books published. He started his career with Geneva's Interavia Group, then owners of International Defence Review, to cover military developments in the Middle East and Africa. Venter has been writing on these and related issues such as guerrilla warfare, insurgency, the Middle East and conflict in general for half a century. He was involved with Jane's Information Group for more than 30 years and was a stringer for the BBC, NBC News (New York) as well as London's _Daily Express_ and _Sunday Express_. He branched into television work in the early 1980s and produced more than 100 documentaries, many of which were internationally flighted. His one-hour film, _Africa's Killing Fields_ (on the Ugandan civil war), was shown nationwide in the United States on the PBS network. Other films include an hour-long programme on the fifth anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, as well as _AIDS: The African Connection_, nominated for China's Pink Magnolia Award. His last major book was _Portugal's Guerrilla Wars in Africa_, nominated in 2013 for New York's Arthur Goodzeit military history book award. It has gone into three editions, including translation into Portuguese.