Between 1973 and 2018, the swaggering Dirk Pitt, a decorated Air Force pilot on loan to a fictional maritime agency who often found himself a human monkey wrench thrust into the center of international intrigue and buried treasure, appeared in at least 25 high-octane adventure novels– two of which were made into movies— all featuring a lot of serious hardware in addition to a range of classic cars, exotic damsels in distress, and international thugs of all sorts with which to engage.
As such, he predated today’s “American James Bond” figures such as Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. In fact, you could go so far to say that those fellas couldn’t even hold Pitt’s orange-faced Doxa dive watch.
As a child of the 1970s and teen of the 1980s, I was on the hook from Raise the Titanic to Deep Six, Iceberg to Cyclops, and beyond. You could say that, in many ways, I was raised by Mr. Pitt, or at least his creator, Clive Eric Cussler, which would probably explain some things about how I tick.
Farewell, Mr. Cussler, finder of the Hunley and Manassas, manufacturer of heroes, and cultivator of sparks. We will try to pick up the torch from here.