As a collector of the entire series, no one awaited this book more than I. I feel let down. Of the 13 stories, (and it's only 318 pages, not 352), seven are fiction. These were not well chosen: selections from Treasure Island and Moby Dick are not even set at sea, but are the land-based openings of the books. The non-fiction does not live up to the billing of the editorial reviews that preceded it on this page. There is not much shipwreck or survivial: several are more like philosophical essays as opposed to stories with an edge. The story on diving the Andrea Doria is perhaps the best in the book, but many of us will have seen it elsewhere, as it is recent. Why a fictional account of the Titanic and not a true one? For a book on treasure, why nothing of Mel Fisher and the Atocha? If you want sea adventure, the earlier book in the series, Rough Water, delivers a bigger punch. This volume, regratably, is one that you can put down between stories.

As a passive individual, I live through the words and experiences of first hand authors for my adventure. This narrative simply scratches the surface of those before it. "Ship of Gold", "The Fatal North" and "Abandon Ship!" come to mind immediately as adrenaline rush examples. Any of the several publications on "The Endurance" far exceed the expectations of "Deep Blue". The human spirit has greater tales to tell.