Shackles from the Deep: Tracing the Path of a Sunken Slave Ship, a Bitter Past, and a Rich Legacy

Gr 8 Up—In his search for the lost treasure of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha in 1972, "Moe" Molinar uncovered a mound of iron shackles on the ocean floor. His discovery, however, didn't lead marine archaeologists to the sunken Spanish ship but rather to the Henrietta Marie, an English slave ship that sank off the coast of Key West, FL, almost 300 years prior. Twenty years later, journalist and scuba diver Cottman was asked to chronicle the ship's history, but what started out as a routine assignment turned into something much more personal for the writer: it became one man's quest for answers about our collective past and relationship with slavery. Cottman previously recounted his pursuits in his adult novel The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie: An African-American's Spiritual Journey To Uncover a Sunken Slave Ship's Past, making him vastly familiar with the subject matter, especially considering that he has been at the forefront of documenting the ship's story for almost 25 years. However, readers eager to be regaled with detailed descriptions of Cottman's investigative adventures undersea and on land will be disappointed. The narrative is often short and choppy, jumping from one moment or line of inquiry to the next without fleshing the scene out. The Henrietta Marie as a subject is secondary to the author's personal reflections and questions on the matter.