Night Probe! by Clive Cussler is the 6th novel in the Dirk Pitt series. It was originally the 5th novel, but Pacific Vortex! was released two years after this but was set at the very beginning of the series.
This story was released in 1981.
Night Probe! book description
In the midst of an international crisis, Heidi Milligan, a beautiful, brilliant American naval commander, accidentally discovers an obscure reference to the long-buried North American Treaty, a precedent-shattering secret pact between the United States and Great Britain.
The President believes that the treaty offers the only salvation for an energy-starved, economically devastated nation, but the only two copies plummeted to the watery depths of the Atlantic in twin disasters long ago.
The original document must be found — and the only American who can do the job is Dirk Pitt.
But in London, a daring counterplot is being orchestrated to see that the treaty is never implemented. Brian Shaw, a master spy who has often worked hand in hand with American agents, now confronts his most challenging command.
Pitt’s mission: Raise the North American Treaty.
Shaw’s mission: Stop Pitt.