Once a generation a person comes along who changes the way things are done. That is Jack Gallagher, a larger than life character unafraid to step on the deck of a foundering ship, amidst pounding seas and find a way to oversee her salvage. This is a true story told in Jack’s own words of an industry at a time when ships grew to be the Super tankers and enormous containerships of today. When the threats to both life and the environment from the enormous forces of the sea loom over the enormous vessels, which today carry the food and energy and goods which make our world go around, it took a special breed of man and company to meet those challenges. This is Jack’s story and the story of so many men and women and companies who invented modern big ship salvage and environmental response. From the pristine waters of Alaska and the Exxon Valdez to the oil sodden Persian Gulf after the first Gulf war to every coastline of America, where big ships came to grief, the creative, fearless hand of Jack Gallagher and the world of brave and ingenious salvors fill these pages.