Dragon Sea: A True Tale of Treasure, Archeology, and Greed off the Coast of Vietnam

By Frank Pope

Frank Pope pulls back the curtain on the intensely competitive underworld of shipwrecks in this thrilling story of treasure hunting gone wrong. When Oxford archeologist Mensun Bound—dubbed the "Indiana Jones of the Deep" by the Discovery Channel—teamed up with a financier to salvage a sunken trove of fifteenth-century porcelain, it seemed a dream enterprise. The stakes were high: The Hoi An wreck lay hundreds of feet down in a typhoon-prone stretch of water off the coast of Vietnam known as the Dragon Sea. Raising its contents required saturation diving, a crew of 160, and a fleet of boats. But the potential rewards were equally high: Bound would revolutionize thinking about Vietnamese ceramics, and his partner would make a fortune auctioning off the pieces. Or so they thought. In Dragon Sea, Pope delivers an engrossing tale of danger, adventure, and ambition—a fascinating lesson in what happens when scholarship and money join forces to recover lost treasure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Aug 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9780547538969

Reviews for Dragon Sea

[michael.bradham · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Read this book 5 years ago, kept it around, read it again.More than a glimpse into the world of deep sea treasure hunting. The delicate balance between commercial and archeological motivations made for a twisting, surprising plot. Some history of Vietnam, Vietnamese ceramics, and individuals involved. Pope writes of his individual journey, in relation to the wild task of salvaging a deep sea shipwreck with a team. Illustrations of ships and diving bells helped show how wild saturation diving is.