Title: Cussler at USS Monitor Christening
DirkPitt - June 16, 2006 02:23 AM (GMT)
Adventure novelist visits The Mariners' Museum
On his trip to Newport News, Clive Cussler promises more books and undersea exploration, but no more movies.
June 13, 2006
NEWPORT NEWS -- "I'd like to retire, but they won't let me," joked Clive Cussler.
Certainly, the fans of Cussler's two-dozen-plus rip-roaring adventure novels wouldn't want him to lay down his keyboard.
There are more Cussler books on the way, the novelist-explorer said Monday, though more of the writing is handled nowadays by his collaborators, including his son Dirk Cussler.
Cussler was in town for Sunday's christening of the USS Monitor replica at The Mariners' Museum, and he stayed Monday for an open house at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Maritime Archaeology Center on the museum grounds.
"My son has taken over the Dirk Pitt series," Cussler said in an interview at the center. Dirk Pitt - whom Cussler named after his son - is the hero of Cussler's most popular series of maritime thrillers.
The elder Cussler, tall, fit-looking and a month away from his 75th birthday, said he's concentrating on books spun off from the original series, and some different kinds of books. This year he came out with a young people's novel, "The Adventures of Vin Fiz," about 10-year-old twins who go flying in a magical replica of a Wright Brothers biplane.
About his collaborative method, he said, "We'll get together, and I come up with the basic concept. It's always based on a 'what if.' "
The "what if" he's considering right now, he said, is supposing that King Solomon had a replica made of the Ark of the Covenant.
A modern-day pursuit of that artifact, he said, "could end up kind of a 'Da Vinci Code' type thing."
When working with his son, Cussler said, "when he gets to chapter 10, he'll give it to me."
One thing his fans won't see any time soon is another movie based on a Cussler book. The novelist was unhappy with the 1980 film version of "Raise the Titanic," his first best-seller, and he wrangled with Hollywood over the 2005 movie of his book "Sahara." He sued the "Sahara" filmmakers, charging that they violated an agreement giving him script approval, and he said there'll be no more movie deals until that lawsuit is resolved.
Even so, he said, "my agent has been approached 20 times about 'Vin Fiz'" as a movie property.
Cussler was an honored guest of NOAA because of his life-imitating-art parallel career. His National Underwater and Marine Agency - a nonprofit organization named after the fictional agency in his Dirk Pitt novels - probes the world's oceans for historic shipwrecks.
In the past 25 years, the real-life NUMA has discovered scores of shipwreck sites. Its most celebrated find - in 1995 - was the Confederate submarine Hunley, which sank off Charleston, S.C.
This summer, Cussler said, he and NUMA will be in the North Sea off England, making their ninth attempt to find the sunken Bonhomme Richard, John Paul Jones' ship.
"We say, a ship is never found until it wants to be found," he said. "And when you do find it, it's never where it was supposed to be."
Wreck-hunting has brought him to Hampton Roads in the past. In the early 1980s he was involved in finding the wreck of the USS Cumberland, sunk by the ironclad CSS Virginia the day before its battle with the Monitor, and the Confederate commerce raider Florida, which sank off Newport News after being captured.
What might tempt him back here, Cussler said, is a search for the iron ram that was torn off the Virginia's prow as it sank the Cumberland.
Cussler's "Sea Hunter" film crew also surveyed the wreck of the Queen of Nassau, the first modern warship of the Canadian navy, which sank in 1926 off the Florida Keys in what is now a NOAA marine sanctuary. Monday's open house at NOAA included celebrating an agreement under which NOAA will send five artifacts raised from the Queen of Nassau to the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Canada.
link
Ceremonial Christening USS Monitor Replica
An ironclad enthusiasm for author at USS Monitor event
Fans turn out for Cussler, who speaks at christening for reproduction of vessel
BY ANDREW PETKOFSKY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Monday, June 12, 2006
NEWPORT NEWS -- A full-size reproduction of the ironclad USS Monitor got star billing yesterday, but adventure novelist Clive Cussler also drew hundreds of fans.
Cussler, who has 120 million copies of his books in print, was the keynote speaker for the christening of the reproduction built for the USS Monitor Center that will open next year at the Mariners' Museum.
A crowd estimated by museum officials at more than 1,000 people attended the 2 p.m. event, but many arrived as early as 10:30 a.m. to stand in line for a Cussler book-signing that had been set to start at noon.
"I came because he was going to be here," said Barbara Rode of Yorktown. She stood in line with two hardbound copies of Cussler's 2005 novel, "Polar Shift."
Sarah Pishko, owner of Prince Books in Norfolk, had brought 250 copies of Cussler books to sell for the signing, and by 1:30 p.m., fewer than half were left.
Pishko said many fans also brought bags and backpacks of Cussler novels from their home collections, and the author cooperated by signing all of them even though it meant stretching the session well beyond its scheduled hour.
John Goodin, who traveled from Chesapeake to get a book signed after hearing about Cussler's appearance on the radio that morning, said he was also thrilled to be present at the Monitor christening.
"It's a great fiction and nonfiction event," Goodin said. "I mean two great stories."
The Mariners' Museum was designated by the federal government in 1987 as the repository for Monitor artifacts recovered from the site where the ship sank off Cape Hatteras in 1862.
The revolutionary armored warship had gained its place in history the previous March by battling the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia to a draw in Hampton Roads harbor and preventing the Virginia from destroying the Union fleet.
The museum now has more than 1,200 Monitor artifacts, including the ship's steam engine and revolving gun turret, thanks to a partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Navy. NOAA and the Navy recovered the objects in a years-long salvage project.
The full-size reproduction, 173 feet long and more than 41 feet tall, is mounted permanently on posts outside the new USS Monitor wing that will formally open on March 9, 2007.
The museum and its partners have raised more than $26 million toward the center's $30 million cost.
An important contribution came from the Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipyard and its apprentice school, whose employees and apprentices designed and fabricated the Monitor reproduction using material donated by the Navy, officials said.
Nancy Petters, wife of shipyard President Mike Petters, christened the ship by smashing a bottle of wine against a metal bar fixed to the hull at a place where photographers recording the event would also frame the iconic turret.
Cussler, who has used his wealth and energy to find more than 60 historically significant underwater wrecks -- including the Confederate submarine CSS Hunley -- didn't talk much about the Monitor.
Instead, he described the CSS Virginia's bold attack that destroyed two Union frigates on the James River before the Monitor reached the area. The Confederate ship was so successful that its captain was heading back to port that evening certain that he could dispatch the rest of the fleet the following day.
As the light faded, Cussler said, an unusual-looking craft appeared on the horizon.
"The Monitor had arrived," he said. "Thank you."
link
On his trip to Newport News, Clive Cussler promises more books and undersea exploration, but no more movies.
June 13, 2006
NEWPORT NEWS -- "I'd like to retire, but they won't let me," joked Clive Cussler.
Certainly, the fans of Cussler's two-dozen-plus rip-roaring adventure novels wouldn't want him to lay down his keyboard.
There are more Cussler books on the way, the novelist-explorer said Monday, though more of the writing is handled nowadays by his collaborators, including his son Dirk Cussler.
Cussler was in town for Sunday's christening of the USS Monitor replica at The Mariners' Museum, and he stayed Monday for an open house at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Maritime Archaeology Center on the museum grounds.
"My son has taken over the Dirk Pitt series," Cussler said in an interview at the center. Dirk Pitt - whom Cussler named after his son - is the hero of Cussler's most popular series of maritime thrillers.
The elder Cussler, tall, fit-looking and a month away from his 75th birthday, said he's concentrating on books spun off from the original series, and some different kinds of books. This year he came out with a young people's novel, "The Adventures of Vin Fiz," about 10-year-old twins who go flying in a magical replica of a Wright Brothers biplane.
About his collaborative method, he said, "We'll get together, and I come up with the basic concept. It's always based on a 'what if.' "
The "what if" he's considering right now, he said, is supposing that King Solomon had a replica made of the Ark of the Covenant.
A modern-day pursuit of that artifact, he said, "could end up kind of a 'Da Vinci Code' type thing."
When working with his son, Cussler said, "when he gets to chapter 10, he'll give it to me."
One thing his fans won't see any time soon is another movie based on a Cussler book. The novelist was unhappy with the 1980 film version of "Raise the Titanic," his first best-seller, and he wrangled with Hollywood over the 2005 movie of his book "Sahara." He sued the "Sahara" filmmakers, charging that they violated an agreement giving him script approval, and he said there'll be no more movie deals until that lawsuit is resolved.
Even so, he said, "my agent has been approached 20 times about 'Vin Fiz'" as a movie property.
Cussler was an honored guest of NOAA because of his life-imitating-art parallel career. His National Underwater and Marine Agency - a nonprofit organization named after the fictional agency in his Dirk Pitt novels - probes the world's oceans for historic shipwrecks.
In the past 25 years, the real-life NUMA has discovered scores of shipwreck sites. Its most celebrated find - in 1995 - was the Confederate submarine Hunley, which sank off Charleston, S.C.
This summer, Cussler said, he and NUMA will be in the North Sea off England, making their ninth attempt to find the sunken Bonhomme Richard, John Paul Jones' ship.
"We say, a ship is never found until it wants to be found," he said. "And when you do find it, it's never where it was supposed to be."
Wreck-hunting has brought him to Hampton Roads in the past. In the early 1980s he was involved in finding the wreck of the USS Cumberland, sunk by the ironclad CSS Virginia the day before its battle with the Monitor, and the Confederate commerce raider Florida, which sank off Newport News after being captured.
What might tempt him back here, Cussler said, is a search for the iron ram that was torn off the Virginia's prow as it sank the Cumberland.
Cussler's "Sea Hunter" film crew also surveyed the wreck of the Queen of Nassau, the first modern warship of the Canadian navy, which sank in 1926 off the Florida Keys in what is now a NOAA marine sanctuary. Monday's open house at NOAA included celebrating an agreement under which NOAA will send five artifacts raised from the Queen of Nassau to the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Canada.
link
Ceremonial Christening USS Monitor Replica
An ironclad enthusiasm for author at USS Monitor event
Fans turn out for Cussler, who speaks at christening for reproduction of vessel
BY ANDREW PETKOFSKY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Monday, June 12, 2006
NEWPORT NEWS -- A full-size reproduction of the ironclad USS Monitor got star billing yesterday, but adventure novelist Clive Cussler also drew hundreds of fans.
Cussler, who has 120 million copies of his books in print, was the keynote speaker for the christening of the reproduction built for the USS Monitor Center that will open next year at the Mariners' Museum.
A crowd estimated by museum officials at more than 1,000 people attended the 2 p.m. event, but many arrived as early as 10:30 a.m. to stand in line for a Cussler book-signing that had been set to start at noon.
"I came because he was going to be here," said Barbara Rode of Yorktown. She stood in line with two hardbound copies of Cussler's 2005 novel, "Polar Shift."
Sarah Pishko, owner of Prince Books in Norfolk, had brought 250 copies of Cussler books to sell for the signing, and by 1:30 p.m., fewer than half were left.
Pishko said many fans also brought bags and backpacks of Cussler novels from their home collections, and the author cooperated by signing all of them even though it meant stretching the session well beyond its scheduled hour.
John Goodin, who traveled from Chesapeake to get a book signed after hearing about Cussler's appearance on the radio that morning, said he was also thrilled to be present at the Monitor christening.
"It's a great fiction and nonfiction event," Goodin said. "I mean two great stories."
The Mariners' Museum was designated by the federal government in 1987 as the repository for Monitor artifacts recovered from the site where the ship sank off Cape Hatteras in 1862.
The revolutionary armored warship had gained its place in history the previous March by battling the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia to a draw in Hampton Roads harbor and preventing the Virginia from destroying the Union fleet.
The museum now has more than 1,200 Monitor artifacts, including the ship's steam engine and revolving gun turret, thanks to a partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Navy. NOAA and the Navy recovered the objects in a years-long salvage project.
The full-size reproduction, 173 feet long and more than 41 feet tall, is mounted permanently on posts outside the new USS Monitor wing that will formally open on March 9, 2007.
The museum and its partners have raised more than $26 million toward the center's $30 million cost.
An important contribution came from the Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipyard and its apprentice school, whose employees and apprentices designed and fabricated the Monitor reproduction using material donated by the Navy, officials said.
Nancy Petters, wife of shipyard President Mike Petters, christened the ship by smashing a bottle of wine against a metal bar fixed to the hull at a place where photographers recording the event would also frame the iconic turret.
Cussler, who has used his wealth and energy to find more than 60 historically significant underwater wrecks -- including the Confederate submarine CSS Hunley -- didn't talk much about the Monitor.
Instead, he described the CSS Virginia's bold attack that destroyed two Union frigates on the James River before the Monitor reached the area. The Confederate ship was so successful that its captain was heading back to port that evening certain that he could dispatch the rest of the fleet the following day.
As the light faded, Cussler said, an unusual-looking craft appeared on the horizon.
"The Monitor had arrived," he said. "Thank you."
link
Dear_Heart05 - June 16, 2006 03:26 AM (GMT)
Im very interested in this line........
he's concentrating on books spun off from the original series, and some different kinds of books.
What do you think it means???
Thanks for the news Tony! th: w:
he's concentrating on books spun off from the original series, and some different kinds of books.
What do you think it means???
Thanks for the news Tony! th: w:
dradvent - June 16, 2006 06:18 AM (GMT)
thankyou for the info more books to look forward to!!! t:
Kellym - June 16, 2006 01:33 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| This summer, Cussler said, he and NUMA will be in the North Sea off England, making their ninth attempt to find the sunken Bonhomme Richard, John Paul Jones' ship. |
Coooool!! th:
tonym5 - June 17, 2006 01:39 AM (GMT)
Thanks for the info, Tony K!!!! w: Way Cool that Dr. C appeared at this event and was gracious to sign autographs!!!! p:
boissee - June 18, 2006 10:46 PM (GMT)
Way cool! I've been to that museum, it's pretty awesome!
oswalder - June 19, 2006 03:57 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Dear_Heart05 @ Jun 15 2006, 11:26 PM) |
| Im very interested in this line........ he's concentrating on books spun off from the original series, and some different kinds of books. What do you think it means??? |
The Oregon Files series is spun off of Juan Cabrillo and his crew's appearance in one of the Dirk Pitt novels. Can't quite think of which one it was, Flood Tide maybe?
While Kurt Austin hasn't really appeared in any DP books, he does work for NUMA so it's kind of a spin-off.
The "different kinds of books" is probably referring to Vin Fiz, as well as his coffee table book about his car collection.
det: