A chronicle of the search for the ships sunk during the Battle of Guadalcanal integrates a first-person narrative of the expedition with photographs of ships from both sides lost in the battle. TV tie-in.
Dozens of battered warships lie beneath the constricted waters off Guadalcanal, justifying the macabre moniker of Iron Bottom Sound. Unseen for 50 years, this submarine battlefield received its first visitor in 1992, aquanaut Robert Ballard. The twisted, encrusted shapes he saw are here spread out with the same lavish pictorial formula used in his enormously popular albums on the Titanic and the Bismarck. Prewar photos of battleships in dress regalia contrast graphically with eerie paintings and photos of shell and torpedo strikes that destroyed them and their crews. Now--as in the moment of foundering during the half dozen sharp, short naval battles around the island--guns aim askew, fatal holes gape wide, and turret plates peel back. The Titanic and the Bismarck--both on maiden voyages--sailed to the deep with ill-fated majesty. But Ballard treats these unheralded ships--American, Australian, and Japanese--with the same technical accuracy and awesome reverence.

I like the pictures, and the t history of the expedition was interesting. certainly more of a photo book than anything else ( )

Beautiful pictures of the wrecks at Savo.