When I first started writing, I was in advertising at the time, I was doing most of my writing on weekends. I had studied most of the other series heroes and I figured it would be fun for mine to be different and put him in and around water. So I dreamed up Dirk Pitt.

Cussler is the founder and chairman of the real-life National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) which has discovered more than sixty shipwreck sites and numerous other notable sunken underwater wreckages. Clive Eric Cussler (born July 15 1931 in Aurora Illinois) is an American adventure novelist and marine archaeologist. He is the sole author or lead author of more than 50 books.