George Fletcher Bass is celebrated as the father of underwater archaeology. He directed the first archaeological expedition to entirely excavate an ancient shipwreck, pioneering the field. Bass's extensive work on shipwrecks from various eras, including the Bronze Age, Classical Age, and Byzantine periods, has profoundly illuminated ancient civilizations. His founding of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) led to crucial discoveries that shed new light on diverse subjects like the origins of free enterprise, the dating of ancient epics, and the histories of technology, art, and religion.
Tells the development of watercraft in the Americas and Canada, drawing on the work of undersea archaeologists to recount every phase of American naval history, from Native American cultures to the destruction of the Arizona at Pearl Harbor