Cave Canem
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Cave Canem


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The Thunder Child: Techno Ocean Academy
THE CAVE CANEM

It's virtually impossible to publish a non-fiction book without any errors. They may caused by time (for example: any book published before 2000 will say there are only four oceans, since 2000 there have officially been five), omission, or by murky writing.

This Cave Canem will present all errors found in marine-themed books which are aimed at a popular audience (except the obvious one of the number of oceans, unless such errors are of a particularly egregious kind, i.e. saying so in a book published after 2000.)

This is a database in progress. If you see any errors in marine-themed books, please email us at Techno Ocean Academy.

Title Author/Publisher © Notes
The Explorers of the Undersea World

Error Type: Factual
William Beebe and the Bathysphere

Gaines, Richard

Chelsea House Publishers

1994 Pg. 77-78
In describing Beebe's bathysphere: "A hollow sphere built of heavy steel, with room for a single passenger and a tiny porthole and searchlight for viewing...In 1934, off the coast of Bermuda, Beebe squeezed into his bathysphere and was lowered...into the sea."

Author Gaines is incorrect in several particulars. The "Beebe" bathyscaphe had two portholes, not one. It was designed and built not by "Beebe" but by Otis Barton. There was room for two passengers, not "one." Otis Barton accompanied Beebe on all of the bathysphere's beginning dives.

Source: Descent - The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss, by Brad Matsen. Pantheon Books, (2005).

The Explorers of the Undersea World

Error Type: Omission
The lost H-Bomb with recovery help by Alvin.

Gaines, Richard

Chelsea House Publishers

1994 Pg. 92-96
"On January 17, 1966, a U. S. Air Force B-52 caught fire and exploded over Spain's Atlantic Coast. One of the hydrogen bombs carried by the B-52 plunged into the Meditteranean Sea off the small fishing village of Palomares."

What the author does not state is that four hydrogen bombs fell out of the B-52, three ending up on land. Indeed, the whole story is more complex that is given here.

Source: American Heritage Magazine online article

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