Where Divers Dare

In the tradition of Shadow Divers, this is the gripping true account of the search for German U-boat U-550, the last unfound, diveable wreck of a U-boat off the United States coast, and the battle in which it was sunk.
 
On April 16, 1944, the SS Pan Pennsylvania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-550 off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. In return the sub was driven to the surface with depth charges, and then sent to the bottom of the ocean by three destroyer escorts that were guarding the naval convoy. For more than sixty years the location of the U-boat’s wreck eluded divers.
 
In 2012, a team found it—the last undiscovered U-boat in dive-able waters off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, more than three hundred feet below the surface.
 
This is the story of their twenty-year quest to find this "Holy Grail" of deep-sea diving and their tenacious efforts to dive on this treacherous wreck—and of the stunning clash at sea that sealed its doom and brought the Battle of the Atlantic to America’s doorstep.“Peffer ably conveys the lures and danger of the sport of deep-wreck diving…[and] tempers the excitement of coming upon a “virgin wreck” with the dreaded responsibility of learning what happened to the lost crewmen…A nicely handled work that moves back and forth between the two narratives and provides suspense and also a sense of compassion for the victims.”—Kirkus Reviews

“In this well-told tale of real adventure at sea, Peffer…deftly combines WWII military history with an exciting account of a group of deep wreck divers searching for one of the most elusive and sought-after prizes: the sunken remains of the German submarine U-550…[A] true story of bravery [and] compassion.”—Publishers WeeklyRandall Peffer is the author of eight nonfiction books, most with a nautical angle, as well as nine crime/suspense novels. His first book, Watermen, is a documentary of the lives of the Chesapeake's fishermen. It won the Baltimore Sun’s Critic’s Choice Award and was Maryland Book of the Year. His novel Provincetown Follies, Bangkok Blues was a Lambda Award finalist and has been optioned for film by producer Barr Potter of Tripod Entertainment. The son of a career naval officer, Peffer holds a 100-ton masters license and has logged over one hundred thousand miles at sea, mostly in traditional working vessels. Peffer teaches writing and literature at Phillips Academy, Andover.