SJ23 Totality of the Circumstances
The Burning of the Royal Tar, 1836
A historical investigation into one of New England’s forgotten maritime disasters.
Order a signed first-run hardcover copy of SJ23 Totality of the Circumstances directly from DiveQuest Exploration.
This 342-page historical investigation reconstructs the 1836 burning of the Royal Tar through archival records, witness accounts, engineering analysis, and modern investigative methods.
Your purchase also helps support continued underwater research into the Royal Tar tragedy.
Signed copies are prepared by Dennis Dorsey. Personalized inscription requests may be entered during checkout.
Order a signed first-run hardcover copy of SJ23 Totality of the Circumstances directly from DiveQuest Exploration.
This 342-page historical investigation reconstructs the 1836 burning of the Royal Tar through archival records, witness accounts, engineering analysis, and modern investigative methods.
Your purchase also helps support continued underwater research into the Royal Tar tragedy.
Signed copies are prepared by Dennis Dorsey. Personalized inscription requests may be entered during checkout.
For nearly two centuries, the Royal Tar disaster has been repeated through newspaper accounts, local tradition, secondary histories, and popular retellings. This book reexamines the story through surviving records, geography, vessel history, passenger and crew research, and maritime evidence.
Why This First-Run Edition Matters
SJ23 Totality of the Circumstances is not a mass-market paperback or a brief retelling of the Royal Tar disaster. It is a signed first-run hardcover edition based on years of independent research, source comparison, maritime analysis, and reconstruction of one of the most misunderstood steamship disasters of the nineteenth century.
Each copy ordered through DiveQuest Exploration is part of the first direct author release and may be signed or personally inscribed at checkout. Purchases also support continued Royal Tar research, documentation, and ongoing field investigation.
Ready to reserve your first-run hardcover copy?
Order signed or unsigned through DiveQuest Exploration.
What Makes This Book Different
Re-examines the Royal Tar disaster through historical records, witness accounts, route evidence, and maritime context.
Separates documented facts from later legend, folklore, and repeated errors.
Reconstructs the vessel, voyage, fire, rescue, losses, and aftermath as one connected historical investigation.
Connects the book to the continuing SJ23 Project of the Royal Tar’s final resting place.
Offered as a signed first-run hardcover edition directly through DiveQuest Exploration.
Records. Geography. Vessel history. Survivors. The final hours of the Royal Tar.
About Dennis Dorsey
Dennis Dorsey brings a lifetime of investigative and field experience to his writing. A twenty-five-year law enforcement officer, digital forensics investigator, U.S. Air Force veteran, licensed mariner, and professional underwater diver, he has spent decades tracing difficult questions through records, evidence, coastal waters, and wreck sites.
His work on the Royal Tar draws from criminal investigation, information technology, maritime fieldwork, documentary research, marine biology, maritime archaeology, and technical diving. Whether working with historical records or offshore charts, his purpose is the same: to recover what can be known and say it plainly.
