James Delgado

James Delgado is a maritime archaeologist and documentary film professional.

He completed his PhD at SFU in 2006, focusing on the maritime archaeology of gold rush San Francisco’s waterfront and its fleet of buried ships and cargoes. His focus as a maritime archaeologist is on the emerging global economy and the role of ships and shipping from 1700-1900, sea power and naval developments of the 19th & 20th Cs., and deep-water shipwrecks. He has worked on sites as diverse as the gold rush, early 19th C. ships in the Gulf of Mexico, Arctic exploration vessels, the vessels sunk in atomic tests at Bikini Atoll, WWII vessels, Titanic, and 19th C. submarines. His current project is leading the archaeological study of Clotilda, the last vessel known to have brought captives from Africa to the United States in 1860.

James hosted National Geographic’s series The Sea Hunters, has appeared in nearly 200 documentaries, and currently serves as senior advisor and commentator on National Geographic’s series Drain the Oceans. An adjunct professor at SFU, he has held a number of senior positions in government and non-profit, and is the author of over 30 books and articles, including 3 children’s volumes, as he believes in relating the past to the present for this and future generations.