James P. Delgado

JAMES P. DELGADO has led or participated in shipwreck expeditions around the world. His undersea explorations around the world include RMS Titanic, the recent discovery of Carpathia, the ship that rescued Titanic's survivors, the notorious “ghost ship” Mary Celeste, USS Arizona, the sunken fleet of atomic-bombed warships at Bikini Atoll, and the 1846 wreck of the United States naval brig Somers, whose tragic story inspired Herman Melville's Billy Budd. Dr. Delgado is the Executive Director of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, the world's leading scientific organization dedicated to the study of the human past through shipwrecks and seafaring. He previously served as executive director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia for the fifteen years. Previously, he was the head of the U.S. government's maritime preservation program and was the maritime historian for the U.S. National Park Service during a thirteen-year career in Federal service. Dr. Delgado also hosts the National Geographic International Television series The Sea Hunters along with best-selling author Clive Cussler. Dr. Delgado's active participation in the study and preservation of shipwreck sites includes a membership in the International Commission on Monuments and Site (ICOMOS) committee on underwater cultural heritage, where his responsibilities include monitoring developments regarding the wreck of RMS Titanic. Delgado was one of the authors of the new treaty for the protection of the wreck of Titanic recently signed by the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Explorers' Club, Delgado is the author or editor of nearly thirty books and numerous articles, including Adventures of a Sea Hunter: In Search of Famous Shipwrecks. His other books include , Lost Warships: An Archaeological Tour of War at Sea; Across the Top of the World: The Quest for the Northwest Passage, an international best-seller published simultaneously in Canada, the U.S. and Britain, The British Museum Encyclopaedia of Underwater and Maritime Archaeology; Ghost Fleet: The Sunken Ships of Bikini Atoll; Pearl Harbor Recalled: New Images from the Day of Infamy; Great American Ships; To California by Sea: A Maritime History of the Gold Rush and three books for children, Wrecks of American Warships, Native American Shipwrecks, and Shipwrecks of the Westward Movement.