Sea Salt : Memories and Essays

by Waterman, Stan

• ISBN13: 9781878348401
• ISBN10: 187834840X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-30
• Publisher: New World Pubns Inc

Summary

Born in 1923, Stan was a blueberry farmer in Maine for a while, and then in the 1950's he converted a fishing trawler into a charter dive boat and angled the bow toward the Bahamas. For a decade he eked out a living traveling the back roads of America showing his hand-spliced films. In 1965 Stan took his family to live and play in Tahiti. Success was launched when National Geographic purchased rights to their tropical odyssey. Later he directed underwater photography for the film version of The Deep, followed by ten years of production work with friend Peter Benchley for ABC - in the process he garnered five Emmys. This is adventurous story of his life.

Author Biography

Ever since donning a Japanese Ama pearl divers' facemask as a schoolboy in 1936 Stan Waterman dreamed of undersea adventure. After service in World War II and graduation from Dartmouth he was the first in his home state of Maine to purchase and pioneer the new Aqualung underwater breathing system. Casting his sights down Robert Frost's road less traveled, he abandoned life as a gentleman blueberry farmer, converted a fishing trawler into a charter dive boat and angled the bow toward the Bahamas. It was there, in the 1950's, during those heady seminal years of underwater discovery that Stan first carried a movie camera underwater. Thus began a globetrotting life of underwater movie making that has entertained and enlightened audiences with a fertile feast of novel images for a half-century. For a decade he eked out a living traveling the back roads of America showing his hand-spliced films. In 1965 Stan took his family to live and play in Tahiti. Success was launched when National Geographic purchased rights to their tropical odyssey. A stellar string of ventures followed beginning with his 1968 collaboration with Peter Gimbel on the shark classic Blue Water, White Death. Later he directed underwater photography for the film version of The Deep, followed by ten years of production work with friend Peter Benchley for ABC's American Sportsman û in the process he garnered five Emmys. Sea Salt is the handiwork of a born storyteller with a flair for language as stoked with imagery and insight as his films. Liberally sprinkled with humor, verve and singular turns of phrase, his memories and selected writings deftly portray the joys and travails of living a full-bodied life.

Table of Contents

Foreword	8	(1)
Peter Benchley
Foreword	9	(3)
Howard Hall
Preface	12	(5)
PART I MEMORIES
I The Punch Bowl	17	(3)
II Rehoboth Days	20	(5)
III Inheritance	25	(3)
IV "Fire and Ice"	28	(2)
V Nelli B.	30	(10)
VI Corsican Honeymoon	40	(7)
VII The Gumshoe Circuit	47	(5)
VIII Aegean Treasure	52	(9)
IX Cruises on the Little Vigilant	61	(6)
X Amazon	67	(7)
XI Polynesian Adventure	74	(21)
XII Blue Water, White Death	95	(8)
XIII Explosive Diving	103	(4)
XIV Clunies-Ross	107	(6)
XV Needle in a Haystack	113	(5)
XVI Sea Rovers	118	(2)
XVII The Punch Bowl Remembered	120	(5)
XVIII Bits and Pieces	125	(4)
IXX Lignum Vitae	129	(5)
Epilogue	134	(5)
PART II SEA SALT & OTHER WRITINGS
The Rambo Out-of-the-Cage Club	139	(4)
The Confessions of a Retired Spearfisherman	143	(3)
Descent Into the Maelstrom	146	(5)
The Middle of Nowhere	151	(5)
An Embarrassment of Whale Sharks	156	(4)
The Vastness of the Sea	160	(3)
Stone Carver from the Sea	163	(3)
The Lost Treasure of the Incas	166	(4)
Neither Friend Nor Monster	170	(4)
Encounter with a Dragon	174	(3)
Sharks: A Three Part Odyssey	177	(9)
Hanky Panky on a Live-aboard	186	(5)
How Not to Run a Dive Boat	191	(4)
Jacqui	195	(3)
The Man Who Loves Shrimp	198	(5)
Night	203	(3)
Monster	206	(3)
Creatures of the Night	209	(6)
My Son the Manta Rider	215	(5)
Hans & Lotte Hass – A Remembrance	220	(4)
Bait Ball	224	(3)
Jaws of Death	227	(7)
To Feed or Not to Feed	234	(4)
Reflections on Times Behind and Ahead	238	(4)
The Heroic Man	242	(4)
Tube Sucker's Tales	246	(6)
Alien Night	252	(2)
Perspective	254	(4)
Devil Work	258	(4)
The Ivory Coast Thruster Shoot	262	(3)
Sea Lions	265	(2)
The Girl on the Train	267	(3)
A Royal Birthday Party	270	(5)
PART III LETTERS HOME
Letters From the Flying Dutchman	275	(10)
On Slowing Down	285	(2)
Editors' Note & Photo Credits	287