Sea Salt, Memories and Essays
Foreword by Peter Benchley
Ladies and gentlemen, are you in for a treat! You are about to make the acquaintance of one of the most extraordinary gentlemen of this or any recent age. And not just a gentleman but a filmmaker, an adventurer, an explorer, a daredevil, a gallant, a poet, an intimate of creatures as exquisitely exotic as the leafy sea dragon and the sloe-eyed cuttlefish and – this above all – a true pioneer in the discovery of our last frontier, the sea.
Stan Waterman has spent more than half a century in, on and under
the sea, and in these pages he takes you with him on the amazing
ride he calls his life. There is excitement enough in his encounters
with wild animals and weird people to fill a hundred lives and all
their fantasies. To cite just one example, have you ever wondered
what it would be like to dive in the open ocean with a huge school
of certifiably anthropophagous sharks as they gorge on the carcass
of a whale … at night? Probably not. But hang on, because
when Stan recounts scenes from the filming of the classic 1971 documentary
feature film, Blue Water,
White Death, you'll be there beside him, and astonished that anyone lived
to tell the tale.
Stan is on intimate terms with many of the seas' most formidable denizens, including that ultimate marine predator, the Great White Shark, and he writes wonderfully about the contradictions inherent in this magnificent creature: the incomparable natural beauty, the perfection of function, all manifest in the creature's capacity as a killing machine.
Sea Salt is far more, however, than just a catalogue of critters and close calls. Stan has a profound rapport with the sea, and his command of language and literature eloquently conveys the depth of his feeling. The thoughtful, graceful writing sets the book a full step above most memoirs about the sea; not only does Stan appreciate good writing – you'll be pleased to encounter an occasional quote from Joseph Conrad or Henry Beston – but he'll often turn a phrase or craft a paragraph that could well have come from the pen of a master.
Born in Montclair, New Jersey, one of two sons of a cigar manufacturer, Stan served in the Navy during the last days of World War II and then graduated from Dartmouth College.He was a blueberry farmer in Maine for a while, and tried his hand as a charter-boat captain in the Bahamas. Scuba diving was in its infancy back then, but as soon as Stan discovered that there was a way for him to be able to both see and breathe underwater, he was hooked. Soon he added a movie camera to his kit, and thus was born a career that would lead to five Emmy Awards and would inspire the next two generations of underwater filmmakers.
Today, this gentle man still leads dive tours all over the world,
and he is equally at home pursuing schools of whale sharks and sitting
at home by a fire on a blustery autumn evening, re-reading "Hamlet" for
the twentieth time. I've had the privilege of knowing Stan
since 1974, and I must admit that, like many of Stan's friends,
I take a tiny measure of pride in the publication of
Sea Salt. For at least the last couple of decades,we've been urging him
to commit himself to paper because we felt it was important that his vast archive
of memories not be permitted simply to evanesce.
As you enjoy each grain of Sea Salt, I hope that your richest reward will be a sense of comradeship with the very special man who's sharing with you the story of his utterly beguiling journey.
- Peter Benchley
