Return to Midway

Washington DC: National Geographic, 1999. Deluxe Edition, Second Printing [stated]. Leatherlike. Near fine (removed from shrinkwrap for cataloguing). David Doubilet, Mark Thiessen, Keith Moorehead, Gl. 191, [1] pages. Illustrations (many in color). Maps. Bibliography. Index. Robert Duane Ballard (born June 30, 1942) is a retired United States Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology: maritime archaeology and archaeology of shipwrecks. He is most known for the discoveries of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the battleship Bismarck in 1989, and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in 1998. He discovered the wreck of John F. Kennedy's PT-109 in 2002 and visited Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, who saved its crew. He leads ocean exploration on E/V Nautilus. His work in the Navy involved assisting in the development of small, unmanned submersibles that could be tethered to and controlled from a surface ship, and were outfitted with lighting, cameras, and manipulator arms. As early as 1973, he saw this as way of searching for the Titanic. In 1977, he led his first expedition, which was unsuccessful. On June 4, 1942, near a tiny island 1,500 miles from Hawaii, the course of the Pacific War changed dramatically. Fifty-six years later, famed underwater explorer Robert Ballard embarked on a search for the lost ships that had sunk in that historic battle. Accompanying him were a group of Japanese and American veterans. Their memories act as an affecting counterpoint to the story of the hunt for this great sunken battlefield. On May 19, 1998, Robert Ballard and his team located the remains of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. "Yorktown." Astonishing underwater photographs of the "Yorktown" by David Doubilet and Ken Marschall's haunting paintings of the nearly intact carrier are among the visual highlights of this richly illustrated book. In addition, archival and modern images and paintings by leading aviation and maritime illustrators complement this gripping account of one of history's great air-and-sea encounters and the mission to document the lost ships that today bear witness to it.