Dragon Sea

A True Tale of Treasure, Archeology, and Greed Off the Coast of Vietnam

By: Frank Pope

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

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 15th-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. The costs were unprecedented. 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.

Hired as the project's manager, Frank Pope watched the tumultuous drama of the Hoi An unfold. In Dragon Sea he delivers an engrossing tale of danger, adventure, and ambition, and a fascinating object lesson in what happens when scholarship and money join forces to recover lost treasure.

©2007 Frank Pope (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"Pope's strength in detailing the Hoi An story comes from his fascinating in-depth portraits of the main players in what became an unprecedented and expensive recovery effort." (Publishers Weekly)

Worth a listen

For those who enjoy knowing about "things" which most people have no idea about, this is a good book. It delves into the world of underwater archeology and treasure hunting within the realm of 500 year old shipwrecks containing valuable Chinese and Vietnamese porcelain. The personality conflicts and risks involved are all painstakingly laid out. Also very interesting is the description of "saturation diving", which is a requirement during such expeditions. The book kept my interest, mainly because I like to be the only person in the room who can talk about Vietnamese pottery. But if you are expecting "Shadow Divers" part II, forget it, that book was five stars and in an altogether higher classification than this one.

One of the best books I've listened to yet!

Johnny Heller does a magnificent job narrating this thrilling tale of when business meets academia. I was captivated from the beginning.

Mediocrity at it's best!

Unless you are in this field, I would recommend avoiding this one. I'm really not hard to please either. Good to go to sleep by. Reader doesn't help the situation. Maybe the abridged copy would have been better, I just like to get quantity and quality for my credits