Dirk Pitt

Pitt is the main character of the novel. The son of a senator and a scientist at the NUMA, National Underwater Marine Agency, he is a lover of the water and a diving expert. As a scientist, he not only has a trained, but a curious mind. This combined with his sense of adventure, comes close to nearly getting him and others killed many times during the course of the novel. This is evident from the opening pages of the novel, when he swims out to retrieve the communications capsule, to the ending pages of the book when he is swimming around an underwater seamount. His knowledge of the sea and how to survive save him and others from the near disasters that his curiosity and sense of adventure keep getting them all into.

Pitt is also brash and rebellious, something not expected in an Air Force...