With the mastery that has made each of his books a major bestseller, Cussler ties together the disappearance of a Confederate ironclad in 1865, a British aviatrix who vanished in 1931, and the 1995 mission of Dirk Pitt to find the remains of a pharaoh's funeral barge buried at the bottom of the Nile. The result is Pitt's most gripping and action-packed adventure ever. Maps.