Mud, Muscle, and Miracles
Marine Salvage in the United States Navy
Captain Charles A. Bartholomew, USN ,and Commander William I. Milwee, Jr., USN (Ret.), 2d ed., 2009. ISBN 978-0-945274-60-5
Available free in PDF (12.5 MB)
Mud, Muscle, and Miracles takes its reader on a gripping journey through the evolution of salvage — from the construction of a cofferdam to reveal the battleship Maine at the bottom of Havana harbor to the use of side-scan sonar and remotely operated vehicles to recover aircraft debris and complete vessels from the depths. The story is one of masterful seamanship, incomparable engineering, and absolute ingenuity and courage. It is also the history of one of our nation's longest lasting public-private partnerships — that of the commercial salvage industry and the U.S. Navy. This new edition chronicles another eight precedent-setting marine salvage and deep-ocean recovery operations.
