National Underwater Marine Agency (NUMA) in the Adventures

The Agency

Book (Chapter):

A government oceanographic agency.

Pacific Vortex! (6)

NUMA is the undersea counterpart of the space agency NASA.

Inca Gold (19)

Oceanography research includes deep-sea geology and mining, marine archaeology, biological studies of sea life, and studies of the effects of oceans on the earth's climate.

Inca Gold (19)

NUMA Chief Director

Version 1: When his retirement from the Navy was forced upon him, Admiral James Sandecker uses his considerable congressional influence to connive his way into the job of chief director of the then fledging National Underwater and Marine Agency. In seven short years the admiral takes an insignificant eighty-person agency and built it into a massive organization of five thousand scientists and employees.

Vixen 03 (38)

Version 2: After his retirement, Admiral James Sandecker is asked to organize a newly funded government agency dedicated to the research of the sea.

Cyclops (41)

When President Ford asks Admiral Sandecker to launch NUMA, he persuades Dirk Pitt to join him.

Wherever one goes, the other is sure to follow. Al Giordino doesn't thing twice about joining Dirk Pitt at the National Underwater Marine Agency."

Beginning in a rented warehouse with a staff a fewer than a dozen people, including Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino, Sandecker builds NUMA into a huge organization.

Shock Wave (11)

When the President asks the admiral to replace the ailing Vice President, James Sandecker considers accepting the offer and selects Dirk Pitt to become the next chief director.

Trojan Odyssey (49)

NUMA Headquarters Building

NUMA Headquarters is located in Arlington, Virginia.

Flood Tide (4)

Version 1: The National Underwater and Marine Agency building is a tubular structure sheeted in green reflective glass with "thirty" stories.

Version 2: NUMA headquarters is housed in a "ten" story solar glassed building.

Admiral Sandecker chooses the site when Congress provides funding to construct the building.

Trojan Odyssey (15)

The building sits on an East Washington hill overlooking the Potomac River.

Polar Shift (35)

The tubular green-glassed tower is like the welcome beacon of a lighthouse in the sea of Washington traffic.

Serpent (45)

Emerald -green solar glass covers the walls and ends in a curving pyramidal spire at the top.

Dragon (22)

The lobby has an atrium surrounded by waterfalls and aquariums filled with exotic sea life. A huge globe rises from off the center of the sea-green marble floor, contoured with the geological furrows and ridges of every sea, large lake, and primary river on the earth.

Admiral James Sandecker's Office

Version 1: Has a suite office on the top floor.

Version 2: Has an office on the tenth floor.

Raise the Titanic! (27)
Blue Gold (28)

Version 1: The elevator opens to an anteroom paneled with teak decking from old shipwrecks.

Trojan Odyssey (15)

Version 2: At the end of a hallway a glass door opens into the anteroom outside the admiral's inner office and private conference room.

Atlantis Found (25)

Inca Gold (POSTSCRIPT)
Serpent (15)

Inca Gold (POSTSCRIPT)

The admiral's office floor is made from teakwood planking.

The admiral's desk is made from a refinished hatch cover salvaged from a Confederate blockade runner.

A photo gallery covers one wall of his office on the top floor of the NUMA building overlooking the Potomac River. There is a color photo of Pitt and Giordino standing next to a submersible, drinking from a bottle of champagne as they celebrate the discovery and salvage of the Princess Dou Wan in Lake Michigan. Giordino is smoking a cigar and the admiral is convinced it is one of his.

Valhalla Rising (15)

A bathroom with shower is adjoined to his private office.

Deep Six (26)

There is a workroom next to his office for private and close-knit meetings. Sandecker often uses it as an executive dining room, he and his directors relax in plush leather chairs set around a three-meter long conference table crafted from a section of a wooden hull salvaged from a schooner sunk in Lake Erie in 1882. The table stretches across a thick turquoise carpet in front of a fireplace surrounded by a Victorian mantelpiece. Unlike the modern design and décor of the other offices in the NUMA headquarters building, which are encased in soaring walls of green-tinted glass, this room looked as if it was straight out of an antiquated London gentlemen's club. All four walls and ceiling are richly paneled in a satiny teak, decorated with paintings of US naval sea battles that hang in ornate frames. Only the painting above the fireplace lacks a sea battle. It is a portrait of Sandecker in casual uniform before his promotion and thrown on the beach. Below the portrait, in a glass-enclosed case, sits a model of his last command, the missile cruiser Tucson.

Black Wind (41, 43)

Every day at 3:55pm, Sandecker leaves his office and takes the elevator down to the tenth-floor communications department. The computer section is on the twelfth floor.

Night Probe (22)

Night Probe! (22)

Hiram Yaeger is introduced as the Chief of the Communication and Information Network. His computer domain is located on the tenth floor.

Deep Six (23)

His desk is shaped like a horseshoe.

The desk sits on a raised stage and revolves in the center of the vast room of computers. The staff refer to it as Yaeger's alter behind his back.

Hiram Yaeger's artificial intelligence system:

Cyclops (9)

Inca Gold (29)

Flood Tide (2)

White Death (29)

Dirk Pitt's Office

Version 1: Before going up to his office, Dirk Pitt gets off on the tenth floor to visit Hiram Yaeger.

Atlantis Found (25)

Version 2: The elevator opens onto an ornate mosaic tile floor with scenes of ships at sea that stretches down the corridor of the fourth floor.

Valhalla Rising (22)

The office looks like a trailer park after a tornado. Books, papers, nautical charts and photographs littered every square inch of space - carpet included. His workplace is decorated with antiques he purchased at auction from the passenger ship, the President Cleveland.

Atlantis Found (27)

There is an old fashion coat rack in the office.

Valhalla Rising (22)

Has a couch in his office.

Uses a Sea Hawk dive knife as a letter opener.

Shock Wave (26)

Secretary: Zerri Pochinsky. Click Relations to find a link to her profile.

Additional Offices and Facilities in the Building

Al Giordino's office is on the fourth floor.

Treasure (22)

Auditorium.

Raise the Titanic! (39)

Cafeteria.

Shock Wave ()
Flood Tide (47)
Fire Ice (10)

Chart Room.

Deep Six (64)

Chemical lab on the sixth floor.

Atlantis Found (12, 13)

Clubhouse with tennis courts.

Raise the Titanic! (76)

Conference Room on the fourth floor.

Sahara (30)
Polar Shift (35)

Employee Health Center.

Flood Tide (4)

Kurt Austin's office is on the fourth floor.

Blue Gold (28)
Polar Shift (35)

Marine Artifact Preservation Department.

Inca Gold (26)

Oceanography Department on the 9th floor.

Fire Ice (10)

Open parking lot.

Raise the Titanic! (34)
Deep Six (44)

Operations room.

Night Probe! (38)

Rudi Gunn's office is on the twenty-eighth floor.

Trojan Odyssey (15)

Study on the fourth floor.

Trojan Odyssey (15)

Underground parking structure.

Off-Site NUMA Facilities

NUMA hangar at Dulles.

Raise the Titanic! (44)

NUMA Hurrican Center in Tampa, Florida.

Raise the Titanic! (55)

NUMA Research Center on the bay near Corpus Christi, Texas.

Treasure (65)

NUMA dock facilities in Los Angeles Harbor, California.

Dragon (11)

NUMA research lab in Key West, Florida.

Inca Gold (11)

NUMA marine science center at Bremerton.

Flood Tide (11)

Numa aircraft and transportation buildings are located on the northeast part of Andrews Air Force Base.

Atlantis Found (11)
Valhalla Rising (21)

Numa research station on Lake Superior in Duluth.

Valhalla Rising (39)

NUMA Hurricane Center in Key West, Florida.

Trojan Odyssey (1, 4, 14)

NUMA dock facilities at Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades.

Trojan Odyssey (14)

NUMA boatyard at Fort Lauderdale.

Trojan Odyssey (23)

NUMA northwest field office on Union Lake north of Seattle, Washington.

Black Wind (5)

NUMA has a problem with information leaks/spies from time to time:

Sam Merker "Silver" and his brother Ben Drummer "Gold", Canadian brothers who have been employed with NUMA for two years, are spies working for the Russians.

Raise the Titanic (66)

Heidi Milligan inadvertently leaks information to Brian Shaw on two occaisions.

Night Probe (28, 72)

Hala Kamil unwittingly tells Ismail Yerli (a former lover who reports to Massarde) of Pitt and Giordino's involvement to find the source of the Red Tide.

Sahara (21)

Maeve Fletcher provides Arthur Dorsett information NUMA has collected on the deadly sound waves.

Shock Wave (24, 26)

A spy (an unnamed NUMA geologist) keeps Arthur Dorsett informed of NUMA's mining projects.

Shock Wave (30)

Qin Shang once requested a Chinese historian to search NUMA's data files for a shipwreck.

Flood Tide (5)

An informer (undrecover agent at NUMA) sends Elsie Wolf the files on the NUMA personnel involved in the incidents at Teluride, Colorado and St. Paul's Island.

Atlantis Found (22)

Elsie Wolf steals Hiram Yaeger's report on the ancient seafarers on Admiral Sandecker's desk.

Atlantis Found (25)

Admiral Sandecker's tenth commandment: No alcohol on board a NUMA vessel/plane.

When Dirk Pitt mentions that he is thirsty, Rudi Gunn calls over his intercom for some ice from the ship's galley. Then he produces a bottle of Chivas Regal and two glasses from his bottom desk drawer on the First Attempt.

The Mediterranean Caper (3)

Dirk Pitt, Al Giordino and Colonel Lewis drink FIX, a Greek beer, in Rudi Gunn's cabin on the First Attempt.

The Mediterranean Caper (9)

Case of beer is on the Calliope.

Sahara (12)

Captain Dempsey offers Captain Ryan a drink in his cabin on the Ice Hunter.

Shock Wave (10)

Maeve Fletcher brings two short-stemmed snifter glasses and a bottle of Rémy Martin XO cognac loaned to her by Giordino from his private traveling stock to Dirk Pitt's cabin on the Ice Hunter.

Shock Wave (10)

Captain Dempsey looks the other way while the wine flows at the farewell dinner on the Ice Hunter.

Shock Wave (13)

General Montaigne asks if a bottle of bourbon is lying about on the Marine Denizen. Rudi Gunn smiles and explains that Admiral Sandecker has a rule against alcohol on board NUMA research vessels. However, in honor of the General's presence, a bottle of Jack Daniels Black Label whiskey somehow slipped on board.

Flood Tide (23)

Al Giordino brings Dirk Pitt a present - a bottle of Don Julio Reserve blue agave anejo tequila on the Deep Encounter.

Valhalla Rising (11)

Captain Barnum explains that Dirk Pitt is a bad influence; he never comes aboard a ship without a case of vintage wine.

Trojan Odyssey (2)

Captain Barnum has a bottle of Gosling rum.

Trojan Odyssey (12) p. 131

A bottle of scotch is in the liquor cabinet on the Cessna Citation X NUMA executive jet.

Serpent (34)

Kurt Austin reaches under the table and produces a bottle of Brunello Chianti Classico on the Argo.

Fire Ice (8)