Book Synopses
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
John Chattertion
is a commercial diver, a scuba instructor, a dive boat Captain and a member of the Explorers Club. Seventeen years ago he made his first New Jersey wreck dive. Since then, technical scuba diving and deep wreck exploration have become his passion. In 1994 he was part of the international team who became the first technical scuba divers on the RMS Lusitania, off the coast of Ireland, and later went to Federal Court to dispute the wreck's ownership. His deep wreck discoveries include New Jersey's Mystery U-Boat (the U869 ???), World War II's first casualty in American waters (the Norness), the World War I oil tanker Sebastian and the World War I passenger freighter SS Carolina, sunk by the German submarine U-151. Most recently, he was a member of the British led expedition to the HMHS Britannic in Greece, where he was the first diver to dive the wreck using a rebreather.
Richie Kohler
is an experienced technical wreck diver and shipwreck historian who has been diving and exploring shipwrecks since 1980. Kohler is one of the co-hosts of the television series Deep Sea Detectives on the History Channel and is also a consultant for the film and television industry on shipwreck and diving projects.
Kohler's life long passion has been exploring the famous shipwrecks around the world, including the SS Andrea Doria and most recently, the RMS Titanic. Diving from the Russian research vessel Keldysh, Kohler made multiple dives to 3,786 meters in the MIR submersibles to explore the wreck site.
Kohler's work identifying a WWII German Submarine, U-869 off the coast of New Jersey has been the subject of several television documentaries and a new best selling book by Robert Kurson, Shadow Divers. The New York Times bestseller will soon be a major motion picture by 20th Century Fox, directed and produced by Peter Weir.
Richie Kohler is also currently one of the hosts of television series Dive Portal Magazine
