CLASSIC DIVING BOOKS - Submersibles, and early submarines.

*CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS* *Submarines and submersibles.*	HOMEPAGE TO MASTER LIST
Please note: The books are listed for collectors interest only, and not offered for sale. See also Military Operations and Navy Diving. See also Oceanography and Deep Water Exploration.

AGAINST ALL ODDS
Midget Submarines Against the Tirpitz.

BACK FROM THE DEEP. The Strange Story of the Sister Subs Squalus and Sculpin.
Carl LaVo.
Naval Institute Press Annapolis, MD, U.S.A. 1994 . Hard cover, dust jacket, 226 pages b/w photos./
This epic World War II submarine saga follows the sister boats Squalus and Sculpin as they play out their dramatic destinies in the Pacific. The author, a seasoned journalist, re-creates their entire perilous journey, beginning with the rigorous stateside preparation of the crew. That training was put to the test almost immediately when the Squalus sank during a test dive in 1939. The revolutionary use of the McCann diving bell to save 33 trapped crewmen and the Sculpin's role in that historic rescue are the first of many incongruous twists of fate that bring the two subs together. The saga continues when the Squalus undergoes an unprecedented salvage and, rechristened the Sailfish, redeems its reputation through three years of battle. The extraordinary ordeals shared by the inseparable Squalus-Sailfish and Sculpin are described in gripping detail as the author skillfully weaves together the tragic defeat of the Sculpin by a Japanese destroyer and the frenetic wrath of its sister sub. The intertwined fates of the two boats come to an eerie climax as the Sailfish unleashes a ten-hour attack on the Japanese aircraft carrier Chuyo amid a raging typhoon, unwittingly killing 22 of the 43 prisoners captured from the sunken Sculpin. The narrative travels with the surviving 21 Sculpin crewmen as they face incredible hardships, torture, and disease as POWs in Japan. Today veterans of both boats view themselves as a single company and share annual reunions. Back from the Deep is certain to instill a renewed appreciation for the intrepid men and stealthy ships that were the soul of the Pacific campaign's silent service.

BATTLE BELOW
Robert J. Casey
Written in 1943 with the encouragement and the special co-operation of the US Navy Department. Its publication was then held up by the Navy censorship, and released on June 8, 1945. I could more details but the info came from an eBay sale where I have not come across more parochial drivel that the description for this book. By the author of Torpedo Junction.

BLOW ALL BALLAST! THE STORY OF THE SQUALUS
Nat A. Barrows.
George G. Harrap, London, 1940. Hardcover, 8vo, 234pp.
Dodd Mead and Co, New York. 1940.
Court Book Company, 1941.
Hardcover, dustjacket, well illustrated.
Note: Easy enough to find and not expensive but - no one seems to have an edition with a dust jacket!!!

DARING DIVES OF SUBMARINES AND SUBMERSIBLES
Gillian Hancock.
Published 1980 by Kaye & Ward, London.
Hardcover, dustjacket, 124 pages.
Covers the dives of several early 'submarines' including the Turtle, followed by more recent 20th century events involving U-Boats, British and American submrines. It is by no means a classic and appears to be aimed at the teenage market, although this may be an injustice to the author.
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FEW SURVIVED. A history of submarine disasters.
Edwyn Gray. Publisher: Leo Cooper, London, 1986. Illustrated with some photographs. Later republished 1996.
ISBN 436 18740 X. Illus. with b/w photos. 258 pp .Appendices . A comprehensive account of every peacetime submarine disaster from 1774 to the time of publication. The author examines most of the important sinkings in considerable and describing the attempts made of rescuing the crew and or the vessel.From submersibles of the late 18th century down to the nuclear powered monsters of today, the authot describes in parallel the developements of underwater rescue operations and survival techniques. Several of the incidents in this book appear in print for the first time, others, such as the sinking of the Thetis have been told many times before, but lose nothing in the telling. Among the more extraordinary episodes may be mentioned that of the affray, the whereabouts of which were revealed by a ghost, and of Operation Jennifer, in which Howard Hughes was asked by the CIA to assist in the recovery of a soviet missile submarine.

HELL AT 50 FATHOMS
Charles A. Lockwood.
U.S.Navy submarine disasters that led to modern survival and salvage methods.

ONE OF OUR SUBMARINES
Edward Young.

Published by Rupert Hart-Davis, London 1952.
Hardcover, presume dust jacket, 320 pages, mono plates.
I think there have been many editions of this supoerb classic. Shown is the 1954 Penguin paperback edition.
Biography of operations in a British submarine, HMS Storm, by the commander.
From inside: Comander Young joined up as a Sub-Lieutenant n the Royal Naval Voluntr Reserve in April 1940, and four months later entered the submarine service. After three years of almost continuous war patrols, off Norway and North Russia, in the North Sea, the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean, and after escaping from a sunken submarine, he became the first 'wavy-striper' to command an opetational submarine: This is his story. It was placed by the Sunday Times 'in the very highest rank of books about the war'. The main part of the narrative describes the author's time in command; and besides being an account of H.M.Submarine Storm's war-time operations, it is at the same time the story of a very amateur sailor learning an unusual job. When first published, it was acclaimed by many newspapers as the best sea story of the war. The Times Literary Supplement said, 'Here, in unaffected terms, soopenly written that at the end of the book it seems that the author has barely passed muster as a submarine captain, is as near the whole truth about conditions in a British submarine as one is likely to get.' And Punch offered no mean praise when it wrote that 'in this exciting book, which may well prove the underwater classic, Edward Young writes prose that matches the variety and tensions of a tremendous story. (Image far left is of hardcover). Orange cover in Penguin edition, paperback). [ps-nodj,pb]

ONLY FOUR ESCAPED
C.E.T. Warren and James Benson
Originally published 1958, many later editions, and retitled, THE ADMIRALTY REGRETS, and THETIS - THE ADMIRALTY REGRETS (currently available).
Hardcover, fully illustrated.
The true story of the account of the sinking of the Royal Navy Submarine, Thetis, on June 1, 1939. (Same year as the sinking of USS Squalus). Only four men survived out of a crew of 103. A truly tragic event in the history of Submarines. Reprinted as below.

	THE ADMIRALTY REGRETS... The Story Of His Majesty's Submarines Thetis and Thunderbolt. C. E. T. Warren & James Benson. Published by George G. Harrap, London, 1958, 1st edition.
	THETIS -THE ADMIRALTY REGRETS. C.Warren & J.Benson. Softcover reprint of the classic. Publishers: Avid Publications, UK. Circa 1997. Foreword by Derek Arnold, a survivpr's son. Postscript by David Roberts, maritime historian (who republished this edition) From the Oceans Enterprises' catalog: This is a truly remarkable book; I just couldn't put it down once I started. It tells of the suffering of the men trapped in the hull as failed attempts were made to secure the submarine and rescue the men. It tells of the courageous, and lucky escape, of four men, and how four others died a horrible death. It tells of the conspiracy to hush up the true events that took place, the buck shoving, and lack of responsibility of the Royal Navy. And of course, it tells of how such a tragedy could have occured in the first place, and the suibsequent succesful salvage of the submarine. Was the Admiralty more concerned about saving the submarine, rather than rescuing the civilians and navy men on board? Softcover, 240 pages, mono plates.

RAIDERS OF THE DEEP
Lowell Thomas
First published by William Heinemann Ltd, London, in 1929, with subsequent reprints to at least May 1932.
Also: Doubleday Doran Garden City, NY 1928 (as indicated in a publication)
The Sun Dial Press, New York: 1940.
Facsimile edition produced in 1955.
Hardcover, no dustjacket seen but may have had one; cloth boards are not embossed. 363 pages, index. mono plates, generally two to a page. Regarded as one of the classics on submarine warfare.Chapters include: New Horizons for the U-Boats; Raiding Russian Ports; By Submarine from North Sea to the Inferno at Gallipoli; the Sinking of the Battleship Triumph, Hersings Bags Another British Giant; The Captain and Crew that Sank the Lusitania, and Von Schwieger's Account of how he sank the Lusitania; the U-Boat Ace of Aces, etc etc.
[ps-no dj] [Cover - thanks Mick Stone, from Camberwell Books, Melbourne}

THE RESCUER
The extraordinary life of the Navy's "Swede" Momsen and his role in an epic submarine disaster.
Peter Maas.
Harper And Row New York 1967. Hardcover, dustjacket, 239 pages.
Collins, London 1968. Hardcover, dustjacket.
Image shown - not sure which printing.
The author's first full-length book. With eight pages of illustrations. Appendices. Author's note. Bibliography. Index. From the Dust Jacket: "This is the story of a man and a ship. He was a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy but the ship was not his command. Yet on May 23, 1939, it seemed as if all this man's vision, doggedness and life's work had been shaped directly toward that place and that moment when the submarine Squalus fell 243 feet to the bottom of the sea, trapping fifty-nine men within her."
See below "The Terrible Hours".

THE TERRIBLE HOURS
The Man Man Behind the Greatest Submarine Rescue in History

Peter Maas.
Copyright 1999. Hardcover with dust jacket, 260 pages. First published USA by Harper Collins, 1999.
Paperback edition - Subtitled: The Epic Rescue of Men Trapped Beneath the Sea. Harper Collins, 2000. (Australian and British edition)
Paperback edition - Subtitled: The Greatest Submarine Rescue inm History. Perennial, an imprint of Harper Collins, 2001. (US edition)
On the eve of World War II, America's newest submarine plunged helplessly to the North Atlantic bottom during a test dive. Miraculously, thirty-three crew members still survived. While their wives and girlfriends waited in nearly unbearable tension on shore, their ultimate fate would depend on one man. In this thrilling true narrative of terror, heroism and courage in the depths of a malevolent ocean, prizewinning author Peter Maas brings us in vivid detail a blow-by-blow account of the disaster and its uncertain outcome. The sub was the Squalus. The man was a U.S. Navy officer, Charles "Swede" Momsen, an extraordinary combination of visionary, scientist and man of action. Until his advent, it was accepted that if a submarine went down, her crew was doomed. But Momsen, in the face of an indifferent, often sneering naval bureaucracy, battling red tape and disbelieving naysayers every step of the way, risked his own life again and again against the unknown in his efforts to invent and pioneer every escape and rescue device, every deep-sea diving technique, to save an entombed crew. With the crippled, partially flooded Squalus lost on the North Atlantic floor, Momsen faced his personal moment of truth: Could he actually pluck those men from a watery grave? Had all his work been in vain? The legacy of his death-defying probes into our inner space remains with us today, and in this depiction of the perseverance and triumph of the human spirit, Swede Momsen is given his rightful place in the pantheon of true American heroes. This is truly an excellent book. (eBay description.)
Grey jacket shown far left is hardcover; blue cover is Australian paperback; grey cover right is USA paperback. [ps-all]

PREPARE TO DIVE - The Story of Man Underwater. J.Coggins
Published by Bailey Brothers and Swinfen Ltd, Fokestone (England), 1973; and Dodd, Mead & Co, New York.
By no means a classic, it is still a very readable and interesting book, covering early diving bells, through to submarines and underwatwer research vessels. Many line drawings throughout, no photographs. Hardcover, 128 pages, dust jacket.
See further - History of Diving.
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RAIDERS OF THE DEEP. Lowell Thomas.
William Heinemann Ltd. London. First published February 1929.
The development of the submarine and subsequent sinkings and ememy action. Includes the sinking of the battleship Triumph, and liner Lusitania, inclduing an account from the German side. Quite a bit on the U-Boat side. Hardcover, no dustjacket (my copy), 362 pages, index, many historic mono photogaphs.
[ps]
Title page shown. Black cloth boards.

SHIPS BENEATH THE SEA: A HISTORY OF SUBMARINES AND SUBMERSIBLES.
Robert F. Burgess.

McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, London etc. 1975.
Robert Hale & Co., London. 1975.
The best book I have found on the subject, concisely written, factual and interesting. Introduces Dr. Cornelius Van Drebbel, one of the inventors of the submarine in the seventeenth century; the Eagle and the Turtle of the eighteenth century, and later developments of submarine and submersibles. Hadrcover, dust jacket, 260 pages, many mono photographs.
Covers: Dark blue with conning tower photo is USA edition. Light blue with drawing is British edition published in 1975 by Robert Hale and Company.
[ps-both]
See authors page: Robert Burgess.

No cover image.

STAND BY TO SURFACE
Richard Baxter.
Published 1944 by Cassell and Company, Ltd, London.
First Australian edition 1944. Hardcover, dust jacket, 8 3/4" x 5 1/2", 208 pages. Brown cloth-bound boards with gold type to spine, 36 b&w photographs.
A salute to submariners from many navies - Royal Navy, Polish, Dutch, Greek, & American - heroes all! A history through anecdote and action of those who go to sea in submarines. Stories of the men nd ships in th submarine service, including the ships Safari, Sealion, Truant, Trusty and many others. Predominantly on the British service, also covers Polish, Dutch, Greek and American submarines.

SUBSUNK - The Story of Submarine Escape. Captain W.O. Shelford.
First published in Great Britain 1960, George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, London.
Hardcover, dustjacket, 256 pages, mono plates throughout, drawings.
Includes 'the first escape ever'; Thetis, Squalus; rescue bells, escape apparatus. A very interesting book.
The first half of the book describes successful escapes from sunken submarines from early periods, one as early as the 1850's. The second half is the author's personal experiences of pioneering many methods of submarine escape from 1941 when he was appointed to command the Royal Navy's Submarine Escape Training Unit. All types of submarine escape apparatus known up to that date are also described with detailed drawings.
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THE WONDERS OF THE SUBMARINE AND OTHER UNDER-WATER INVENTIONS.
T.W.Corbin. Seeley, Service and Co. Limited, London. 1918.
A delightful book with several excellent mono photographs, covering the early development of standard rig diving, diving bells, caisson work and the submarine, submairne weapons, disasters and escape from a submarine. It is of historic interest because of its age, and its content. Hardcover, no dust jacket, 164 pages.

No image
available.

WAR FISH
George Grider and Lydel Sims.
Published 1958 by Cassell & Co, London.
I havn't read it yet, and without a blurb it is not possible to give a reasonable summary. Appears to cover submarine operations in th western Pacifc area in World War 2, after the loss of th British ships Repulse and Prince of Wales. American submarines Wahoo and Hawkbill are mentioned.
Hardcover, dustjacket, 214 pages, no photographs.

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