BEIJING – A lifelong scuba diving obsession led Steven
Schwankert to the tale of the HMS Poseidon and the startling
discovery that the British submarine, which sank off the
northeastern coast of China in the 1930s, had been raised by the
Chinese in 1972. That revelation lies at the heart of
Schwankert's upcoming book, "The Real Poseidon Adventure:
China's Secret Salvage of Britain's Lost Submarine" and an
accompanying documentary film chronicling his search for answers
about what became of the sunken vessel. The seven-year
transcontinental quest saw frustrations, triumphs and deeply
emotional experiences, none more so than bringing together
descendants of the Poseidon's crew and sharing with them new
information about the submarine's fate. "I only wish we'd been
able to find more relatives. It feels like we've taken on this
incredible responsibility of being custodians of this history,"
said the 42-year-old Schwankert, an American journalist and
diving instructor who has lived in Beijing for more than a decad