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SJ23 Totality of the Circumstances: The Burning of the Royal Tar, 1836
Hardcover
BoatingGeneral World HistoryRegional: New England
Publisher Price: $64.95
Publisher: Divequest Exploration
Published: Aug 18 2026
Pages: 344
Weight: 1.79
Height: 0.81 Width: 7.00 Depth: 10.00
Language: English
In October 1836, the British schooner-steamer Royal Tar burned in the waters of Penobscot Bay, leaving behind one of the most misunderstood maritime disasters of the nineteenth century. Long repeated accounts have blurred the facts, misplaced the vessel, and simplified a tragedy shaped by weather, machinery, human decision, and the limits of early steam navigation.
SJ23 Totality of the Circumstances reexamines the disaster through surviving records, contemporary newspapers, vessel history, passenger and crew research, geographic evidence, and maritime analysis. Rather than retelling the familiar story, this investigation asks what can actually be known, what has been assumed, and how the final hours of the Royal Tar should be understood.
Dennis Dorsey brings a lifetime of investigative and field experience to his writing. A twenty-five-year law enforcement officer, digital forensics investigator, U.S. Air Force veteran, and licensed mariner, he has spent his life tracing hard answers in difficult places. His background in criminal investigation, information technology, maritime fieldwork, and documentary research sharpened a method built on evidence, verification, and persistence.
A scuba, rebreather, and technical diver and instructor for more than four decades, Dorsey has examined wrecks, coastal waters, and underwater terrain with the eye of both a researcher and investigator. His work draws on long study in marine biology, maritime archaeology, information technology, and criminal justice.
Whether at a desk with records or offshore with charts, he is driven by the same purpose: to recover what can be known, and to say it plainly.
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