Quest for Sunken Warships came about from my original project that started as “World War Two Underwater”. Being involved with the discovery of the U-869 as well as several other ships sunk by U-boats in the area during WWII; and along with my own discovery of an American destroyer. I found that your average American had no idea that WWII had been fought right here on US soil. In fact, if not for the German U-boat presence along the the east coast of the US during WWII, there would be a good number fewer shipwrecks that many of us enjoy diving on today. I was even more surprised at how many divers I spoke with who actually dived on these wrecks that were still quite clueless to the events that put them there. So, I set out to tell this story…..
The project’s theme was to dive and capture imagery of as many shipwrecks sunk during WWII off the east coast of North America and the Gulf of Mexico. The idea was to take the viewer on a historic journey into the depths through the eye of the camera revealing the past by exploring the shipwrecks that now litter the bottom of the Atlantic.
To pull this off financially I enlisted the help of friends, fellow divers, dive operators, etc., I’m sure you get the picture. Everyone did their best to help out where they could and in most cases for nothing more than a few bragging rights. Also enlisted to help see this to fruition was Vinnie Kralyevich, a Director and Produce and owner of KPI the company that produced the first Deep Sea Detectives episodes. Eventually KPI produces over 20 episodes of the series. This is were I met Vinnie, when I was hired by KPI as the Director of Underwater Photography.
After Deep Sea Detectives, Vinnie wanted to get back to the water. I suggested he become a certified diver; he took the plunge. After getting a few dives under his belt Vinnie then realized and understood all of the hassles I’d been going through trying to pitch these show ideas to non-divers.
Vinnie took the mandate as the Director and I as the field producer and we hit the proverbial sidewalk. I captured the images and Vinnie pitched the show and we eventually ended up at Discovery talking to the head of the Military Channel. I guess you can say at this point the rest is history.
In the world of cable TV channels there is an enormous turn over and Military Channel is no exception. By the time we finished the last show the reins had been handed over at least three times. Even though we received good rating for the Military Channel the head of Military at the time passed on more episodes do mainly to budgetary constraints. We’re still pitching new ideas, so stay tuned……….
To find out what time and date Quest for Sunken Warships is on, go to the Military Channel.
The listings are posted every two to three weeks. You can check the box next to the show date to have an email sent to you as a reminder that the show will be on that day.
Own your own DVD set of Quest for Sunken Warships.
You can purchase the 4 show DVD set at the Discovery Store, or at just about any place that sells DVDs. You can also rent the DVD at Block Buster too!
If you’d like to see more Quest episodes got to Discovery viewer relations and put in a request for more shows or click here.
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