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Books : The Terrible Hours : The Man Behind the Greatest Submarine Rescue in HistoryIn association with Amazon.comby: Peter Maas  List Price: $25.00 Price: $10.78 You Save: $14.22 (57%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.916345 EAN: 9780694522101 Format: Abridged, Audiobook ISBN: 0694522104 Label: HarperAudio Manufacturer: HarperAudio Number Of Items: 4 Publication Date: October 01, 1999 Publisher: HarperAudio Release Date: September 22, 1999 Studio: HarperAudio Sales Rank: 1863800 Accessories: Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: 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. Amazon.com Review: Like a tough old salt holding forth in a dockside pub, Kevin Conway narrates this riveting maritime drama in a raspy voice well-weathered by sea spray and Lucky Strikes. Chronicling the true story of 33 American sailors trapped aboard a sunken submarine just prior to World War II, author Peter Maas uncovered the unsung hero behind their attempted rescue, Navy officer Charles "Swede" Momsen. A deep sea visionary, Momsen's unorthodox theories and unproven inventions represented the lost men's only hope. "For someone whose formal education had shaped him for duty as a line officer in the US Navy, Momsen was getting into pretty deep water." Conway does an excellent job of portraying the various crew members without turning character into caricature and knots the nerve-wracking, claustrophobic tension of this ill-fated mission in the back of your throat. (Running time: 6 hours, 4 cassettes) --George Laney Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Book thrown together with little effortThis book appears to be thrown together without a lot of effort, i.e., it has no photographs, no illustrations, no maps, no index, and no bibliography. Anyone with a strong interest in the subject should try to find a copy of the older book by Nat Barrows, "Blow All Ballast". Rating:  - Courage and dedicationThe Terrible Hours: The Greatest Submarine Rescue in History Absolutely the best non-fiction book I have ever read. Rating: - An Ocean Disaster Story with a Remarkable Outcome!Peter Maas lends to this incredible story of courage and ingenuity a master storyteller's gifts that both draw the reader in and hold his interest page after page. From the early, heart-pounding rescue effort of the remaining Squalus crew members at 250 feet below the surface - a rescue previously untried in the short history of submarine operations - to the final, seemingly interminable Squalus salvage operation, The Terrible Hours is a captivating story of man against the sea and of the colossal ... Read More Rating: - Major DisappointmentI love reading these type books and hearing these stories, but "The Terrible Hours" was difficult to get thru and was more of a tribute to Swede Momson than the actual rescue of this doomed submarine. I found myself skimming thru pages of technical mumbo jumbo about Momson's experiments in order to read about the actual rescue itself. And the lack of a few diagrams of the interior and exterior of the Squalus, made the book all the more difficult to really understand and grasp the entire ... Read More Rating: - Diver's StoryI have been a (US Navy qualified) diver since 1958. Momsen has been a household name for years but I had never heard his story. This book filled that gap. Great story, well told. I suspect most anyone would find this a good read but divers will find it facinating. Browse for similar items by category:
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