James P. Delgado has great enthusiasm for adventure and history. Passionate about the past, he has battled for preservation and against looting while pursuing a more scholarly path, always believing that the only way to learn was by getting his hands dirty and doing “it” whatever “it” was in his quest for understanding the past. “It” has included participating in Spanish cavalry drills 1776-style, sailing in a square-rigger, trudging across the icy-cold tundra in the footsteps of doomed Arctic explorers, and at least two near-drownings. It has also included the ill-advised sampling of vintage 1851 champagne plucked from the mud of the old San Francisco waterfront, and trying a coffin on for size.
One of the world’s foremost archeologists, and currently the Executive Director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum (Canada), James Delgado previously served as Maritime Historian for the U.S. National Park Service where he was the founding head of the National Maritime Initiative, the federal maritime preservation program. Author or editor of nearly thirty books, he has appeared in numerous television documentaries, and currently hosts “The Sea Hunters” with Clive Cussler for National Geographic International, just renewed for a third season. His recent Across the Top of the World sold 40,000 copies in the United States, Europe, and Canada.
James Delgado's recent participation in an international expedition to explore the remains of Kublai Khan’s Mongol invasion fleet of 1281 A.D. just located near Takashima Island off Japan. Marine archeologists are calling this Fall, 2001 discovery one of the greatest finds of all time. He grew up in California and now lives in Vancouver, Canada.