After satellite data pinpoints the most likely source of Byzanium, Meta Section sends Sid Koplin to Novaya Zemlya, an island off the northern coast of the Soviet Union.

Using clues found by Koplin, Seagram determines that the byzanium — a chunk worth more than a quarter of a billion dollars in 1912 figures — was mined in the early part of the 20th century by a group of Coloradan miners led by Joshua Hayes Brewster.

Only Brewster reaches Southampton alive, and he books passage on the maiden voyage of the great White Star Line ship RMS Titanic.

Realizing that the only supply of byzanium sufficient to power the Sicilian Project now lies at the bottom of the North Atlantic, Dr. Seagram approaches Dirk Pitt and the National Underwater and Marine Agency and gives them the near impossible task of raising the Titanic.

When Soviet leaders realize that the development of the Sicilian Project would throw off the balance of power in the world and leave their nuclear arsenal impotent, they do just as the CIA hopes and launch an operation to sabotage the mission and steal the byzanium for themselves.

Once the Titanic is secured for the trip to the United States, a massive hurricane strikes the salvage area, allowing the Soviets to covertly board the ship and take the crew hostage.

This revelation, coupled with deep troubles with his marriage and the president's agreeing to leak word of the Sicilian Project to the Soviets, causes Dr. Seagram to have a nervous breakdown.

Christopher Lehman-Haupt of the New York Times Service said the book would "serve to pass a boring day", and that "if Cussler is bad at talk, he is good at ships and gadgets and storms".

[2] Writing in the Baltimore Sun, Robert Aptapton said the novel was "wretchedly written, absurdly plotted, peopled with characters who spout comic book lingo".