Salem's historic role as a major world port, combined with treacherous geography and unpredictable weather, has made Salem Bay the site of hundreds of shipwrecks. In the first comprehensive book on the subject, diver, historian, and shipwreck enthusiast Raymond H. Bates, Jr., writes vividly about everything from the loss of a British frigate in 1710 to the tragic fate of men on a rescue mission during the twentieth century's most destructive storm. He has also compiled the most complete list to date of shipwrecks in the waters off Salem recorded since the seventeenth century.