Swashbuckling Action in the Modern Age

Post date: Oct 15, 2014 10:20:26 PM

When a NASA satellite heading into a polar orbit mysteriously crashes into the Argentine jungle, Juan Cabrillo and his ship, the Oregon, are called in to find it. Cabrillo and his crew succeed in retrieving the satellite, and in the process discover the crash site of a long-missing American airship. That discovery leads Cabrillo and members of his crew to the treasure pit on Pine Island (a fictitious West Coast version of the famed Oak Island money pit), then to the frigid wasteland of Antarctica and a secret Argentinian oil drilling operation. When the Argentine junta lays claim to the Antarctic Peninsula, with the support of the Chinese government, Cabrillo and the Oregon race to the icy waters to find and destroy an ancient Chinese shipwreck that could give Beijing the power to lay claim to all of Antarctica and its wealth of natural resources.

The Silent Sea is the seventh book in Cussler's Oregon Files, co-written with Jack Du Brul. The Oregon is a modern-day Q-ship; on the outside it seems to be no more than a worn-out tramp steamer; on the inside, she is a marvel of modern shipbuilding engineering and weaponry. Among her crew are some of the best and most brilliant covert operators from the military and intelligence worlds. Cabrillo, himself a one-legged former CIA agent, is their captain and the chairman of the "Corporation" which owns the Oregon.

I grew up reading Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels and as much as I enjoyed those, I find I am enjoying the Oregon Files book more. I am looking forward to my next cruise aboard the Oregon.