A large, dark-blue, hardback book of 176 pages, 9 chapters and innumerable illustrations. The author presents an account of the Nanking Cargo, which was found in the South China Sea on May 11th, 1985 by Mike Hatcher and Max de Rham. The cargo was an immense collection of 18th century porcelain from the Geldermalsen a ship from the Dutch East Indies that was wrecked on the Admiral Stellingwerf Reef in 1752, and the name given to the cargo is derived from the 18th century practice of advertsing all porcelain as originating from Nanking.

It was Max de Rham's expert deep sea investigatory equipment that found the wreck, and Hatcher's deep sea diving expertise that mounted the search, and organised the successful salvage of the large collection of porcelain that was eventually sold at Christie's.

Chapter 2 Salvaging a Fortune begins on page 58 with some biographical paragraphs describing Hatcher's 'spartan but not unhappy' childhood in one of Barnardo's Homes in Tunbridge Wells, adjacent to which are two photographs of him as a Barnardo Boy. Barnardo's organised his emigration to Australia aged thirteen, and passage through a number of jobs on farms before he became interested in farm machinery and got himself educated. His work on the machinery involved in the installation of swimming pools led to an interest in aquatic sports, surfing, and finally deep sea diving. He had considerable experience and already one other valuable cargo to his credit before the Nanking find.

The text description of the arduous and dangerous deep sea diving involved in the salvaging, and the subsequent mounting of the thousands of items of porcelain on a world stage through the Christie's auction, assisted by the vivid illustrations, many of which are deep sea photographs, all leave no doubt that Captain Mike Hatcher was well in charge of this treasure hunt.

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