Pacific Vortex!
First edition
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| Author | Clive Cussler |
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| Cover artist | David Monette |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Dirk Pitt Novels |
| Genre | Adventure, Techno-thriller novel |
| Publisher | Bantam Books |
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Publication date
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1983 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Preceded by | Night Probe! (publication date) None (series chronology) |
| Followed by | Deep Six (publication date) The Mediterranean Caper (series chronology) |
Pacific Vortex! is an adventure novel by Clive Cussler. This is the sixth book released featuring the author's primary protagonist, Dirk Pitt, though the author states that this was the first story that he wrote featuring the popular action hero. It was published after much internal debate, and a great deal of prompting from his friends, family and publisher. Cussler states in the Foreword that he feels it is not up to his usual standards and should be treated as sort of a historical curiosity.
Dirk Pitt is enjoying a lazy day on a secluded Oahu beach at Ka'ena Point when he spots a bright yellow container just past the breakers. Braving the dangerous riptides, Pitt swims out and retrieves the item and finds that it is a communication capsule used by submarines who wish to communicate with ships on the surface without surfacing themselves. Inside he finds a chilling message from the commander of the U.S. Navy's latest nuclear submarine, the Starbuck, which disappeared with all hands six months earlier while undergoing sea trials. Investigation reveals that the submarine disappeared in the "Pacific Vortex", an area of the ocean north of the Hawaiian Islands where ships have been disappearing for more than 30 years.
The "Pacific Vortex" is the name given to a fictional area of the Pacific Ocean north of the Hawaiian island of Oahu that, similar to the Bermuda Triangle, has a history of ships mysteriously disappearing in it.
After discovering a communication capsule from the lost submarine Starbuck, Dirk Pitt is seconded from NUMA to the 101st Salvage Fleet and ordered to help get to the bottom of the mysterious disappearance of the top-secret submarine. Pitt discovers that the submarine went missing in an area of the Pacific Ocean north of the Hawaiian island of Oahu nicknamed the "Pacific Vortex". Similar in its mysterious reputation to the Bermuda Triangle, the Navy has documented 38 cases of ships vanishing without a trace with all hands in this area of the Pacific since 1956.
When the Starbuck originally went missing, the Navy conducted a massive and exhaustive search in the area of the Pacific where the submarine was last reported without finding a trace of wreckage. Pitt determines that it is suspicious that the Navy found no wreckage whatsoever, since the search pattern took them over the area that was reputedly the graveyard of the Pacific Vortex. Even if they did not find the wreckage of the submarine, they should have found some wreckage from any of the 38 ships rumored to have gone down in the area.
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Wikipedia