First of all, I would like to extend my thanks to Mr. Oğuz Aydemir, Mr. Kenan Yılmaz, and the entire Turkish Foundation for Underwater Archaeology's Board of Directors who believed in and supported this project with all their hearts. I am also greatly thankful to Mr. Mustafa Koç, whom we lost in the early days of 2016, and who spared some time from his busy schedule to give an interview, included in the book for his support and contributions to the maritime archaeology. You will be reading about the story of his support in this book from various persons.

Those people who made this book, allowed me talk to them, and shared their valuable time with me, are the actors of its pages, and I am grateful to all of them.

I thank Donald Frey whose photos inspired to become a maritime archaeologist, and for letting me use the photograph he gave me to be used on the cover of my book; I feel honored to have his photos in my book.

I would like to thank a million times Aykan Özener for the photoshoot during the preparation phase of the book; Cemal Pulak and Tuba Ekmekçi Littlefield who provided full support during the interviews; Deborah Carlson who made her photo archive accessible for my book; Ahmet Kaan Şenol, my Professor, and mentor throughout my academic journey; Nükhet Everi who shared her memories with me; Onur Caymaz, the editor; Hazal Öztürk who gave her support during the proofreading phase; Celil Samet Harmandar, my colleague, for his support during the proofreading of archaeological texts; Tülay Ulukılıç for creating a colorful book layout; Cengiz Aydemir for the translations to and from English; Tayanç Andy Akgün and Martin Luxton for English proofreading and editing; Çeşme Aktüel magazine for their support and making their photo archive accessible; Murat Yüksel for his support behind the camera during an interview; Serhat Evren Aksoy for his digital photography skills that helped us publish better photographs; and my family…

I wouldn’t be happier if this book is inspiring to readers, any candidate of archaeology, or any colleague!

Mehmet Bezdan