May 5, 2009 Noted Ocean Explorer, David Jourdan, to Discuss the Search for Israel’s Lost Submarine Dakar

On Jan. 25, 1968, the Dakar, Israel’s just-commissioned submarine, disappeared without a trace in the eastern Mediterranean. Israel spent the next 31 years looking for the massive submarine and her crew of 69 officers and seamen. In 1996, the country invited a noted ocean explorer, David Jourdan, to investigate, and in 1999 Jourdan and his team solved the legendary mystery.

Jourdan will discuss “Never Forgotten,” his newly released book about the quest to find the missing sub, at the Library of Congress at noon on Monday, June 8, in the Mary Pickford Theater on the third floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The lecture is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are needed.

The illustrated presentation is sponsored by the Library’s Science, Technology and Business Division and the Library employees’ Hebrew Language Table, in cooperation with the Embassy of Israel. A book signing will follow the discussion.

“Never Forgotten” traces the Dakar from its origins in the British Navy in World War II through its sale to Israel and the fateful voyage across the Mediterranean. The book describes the search for and discovery of the submarine, and it also tells the story of the boat’s crew and the impact the tragedy had on an entire nation.

Jourdan is the co-founder and president of Nauticos, an ocean exploration company in Cape Porpoise, Maine. A 1976 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Jourdan served as a U.S. Navy submarine officer. He holds a master’s degree in applied physics from The Johns Hopkins University.

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