This book is a primer for one particular and very captivating activity: diving on shipwrecks. It proposes to offer practical information, as opposed to theoretical or mathematical; that is, how to conduct a dive on sunken ships, not what happens to the body under pressure. Furthermore, it intends to address the grimmer realities that are often overlooked: entanglement, equipment flooding, seasickness, and getting lost at sea, to name a few. To a certain extent, these unfortunate events are overemphasized in order to make up for the fact that they are seldom addressed in class or in popular publications: they make uncomfortable enlightenment at best. My intention is not to scare anyone off, but to acquaint people with worst case scenarios that may never occur, and to impart information that is otherwise unobtainable.

The topics covered include equipment modification, thermal protection, access to sites, current and surge, wreck orientation and navigation, night diving, photography, pharmacology, and a riveting rivet by rivet account of how shipwrecks got the way they are and why they look the way they do. The text is extensively illustrated with color photographs from the author's collection; eight illustrations demonstrate the evolution of shipwreck collapse, from an intact hull to a field of debris.

Primary Wreck-Diving Guide is the first of the three Wreck-Diving Guides. It is followed by the Advanced Wreck-Diving Guide (deep air diving, decompression methods, wreck penetration, and more), which itself is followed by the Ultimate Wreck-Diving Guide (which introduces nitrox, mixed gas, accelerated decompression using oxygen, and other high-tech concepts).