New Jersey Scuba Diving

There is actually a wealth of books on the subject of diving the New Jersey / New York area. A great deal more information, including loran numbers and/or directions, much more detailed histories and descriptions, and historical photos, can be found in these references, and I highly recommend all of them. You can find these at your local dive shop, or order all of them directly from the links on this page.

Many out-of-print titles are still available from used book dealers and can be found by searching online.

Update 2020:

Unfortunately, most of these are out of print now, but you can search out used copies.

Undiminished Violence by Thomas G Clark
Where Divers Dare The Hunt for the Last U-boat by Randall Peffer
Hidden History of Maritime New Jersey by Steve Nagiewicz

• Wreck Valley III
• New Jersey Beach Diver
• Long Island Shore Diver
• Wreck Valley CD-ROM
• Waterproof site slates

• Shipwrecks of New Jersey - North
• Shipwrecks of New Jersey - Central
• Shipwrecks of New Jersey - South
• Shipwrecks of New York
• Shipwrecks of Delaware & Maryland
• Shipwrecks of Connecticut & Rhode Island

All include exhaustive lists of Loran and GPS numbers

To order these books and others, visit Gary Gentile's website at http://ggentile.com

Scuba Diving the Wrecks and Shores of Long Island, NY
by David Rosenthal

To order this book, visit The Wharves Project website at "http://thewharvesproject.org

New Jersey Shipwrecks:
350 years in the Graveyard of the Atlantic
Margaret Thomas Buchholz
Down the Shore Publishing, 2004
200 pages, illustrated, b&w

Shore Diving in New Jersey
Tom Gormley & Ben Gualano, 2003
200 pages, illustrated, b&w

Top 40 Shore Dives In New Jersey
By Tom Gormley
208 pages, illustrated, b&w

Lost Voyages
Bradley Sheard
Aqua Quest Publications, 1998
216 pages, illustrated, color

The Sea's Bitter Harvest
Douglas A. Campbell, 2001

About the four clam boats that sank in two weeks in 1999.

Shadow Divers
Robert Kurson, 2003

What ! You haven't heard of this one ?
Have you been living under a rock ?

The Last Dive
Bernie Chowdhury, 2000

To me, this is a manual of how NOT to dive. Especially regarding the author's (Chowdhury's) own experiences, if I did that many dumb things in a row, I wouldn't put them all down in a book. He is lucky to be alive. Contains a lot of cave-diving propaganda also.

Deep Descent
Kevin F. McMurray, 2001

All about the Andrea Doria, from the collision to the latest diving.

Perils of the Port of New York
Jeannette Edwards Rattray
Dodd Mead & Co., 1973

My copy still has a card in it from the Manhattan Public Library !

Broken Spars - New Jersey Coast Shipwrecks 1640-1935
Leland Wooley Downey
Brick Twsp. Historical Society, 1960

Shipwrecks of the Atlantic
Bill Davis
The Fisherman Library, 1991
248 pages, illustrated, b&w

Shipwrecks of New Jersey
Gary Gentile
Gary Gentile Productions, 1988

This book is replaced by three new ones.

Guide to Shipwreck Diving - New York & New Jersey
Henry C. Keatts
Pisces Books, 1992
186 pages, illustrated, color

Shipwrecks Near Barnegat Inlet
David J Siebold & Charles J Adams III
Exeter House Books, 1995

Scuba Northeast vol II
Robert G. Bachand
Sea Sports Publications, 1986

Shipwrecks in New York Waters
Paul Morris & William Quinn
Parnassus Imprints, 1989

Beyond Sportdiving
Bradley Sheard
Menasha Ridge Press, 1991

WreckMaster Northeast CD-ROM
Scubamation 1993

hopelessly outdated

Shipwrecks Off the New Jersey Coast
Walter & Richard Krotee
1966

This book is one of the earliest and most detailed references on New Jersey shipwrecks. As such, unfortunately, it is also the source of most of the rumors and errors in New Jersey shipwreck histories.

Shipwrecks Unforgotten:
From New Jersey to the Gulf of Florida
Norbert Freitag 1997

Mainly just Loran lists.

Deep Sea Fishing Grounds

This is an interesting book full of descriptions of many sites from 1915. Download the pdf.