Rating: 
Summary: Swede Momsen and the Rescue and Salvage of the USS Squalus
Review: Peter Maas, an ex-Navy man himself, has done a masterful job with this recounting of the U.S. Navy's greatest prewar submarine disaster. Written in a matter-of-fact style, he takes us through the sinking and salvage of the Squalus in the days when deep-ocean diving was in its infancy. He also acquaints us with a man whose work in underwater operations is at least as important as that of Jacques Cousteau, Commander Charles "Swede" Momsen. The rescue of the Squalus's survivors and her subsequent salvaging by Momsen and his dive unit is only half the story. The rest of it concerns Momsen's determination to insure that the tragedies of the S-4 and the S-51, lost with all hands in peacetime accidents with their crews unable to escape from their sunken boats, would not be repeated if he could help it. Helium-oxygen diving gas, rescue chambers, the first self-contained underwater breathers using heli-ox, the first attempts to provide submariners with emergency rescue breathers, all are products of Momsen's fertile mind and driving personality. His impact on the Navy is still felt today, including in modern submarine design. In his own way, Swede Momsen's influence on submarines is as important as that of Mush Morton, the wartime sub skipper sans peur. I can recommend this book unreservedly to anyone interested in submarines, ocean salvage, deep-sea diving, or page-turning sea stories. It's worth the reader's time to learn of this unsung American hero and his work.
Rating: 
Summary: Unabridged audio - poor narrator
Review: The story is great, but the narrator of the unabridged audio is not. His misplaced emphasis and intonation are very distracting -- instead of listening to the story, I keep noticing the poor narration. This is a dense enough story, with many characters, that it would have been a little difficult to listen to anyway. But of the 15-20 audiobooks I've listened to, this had the worst narrator.
Rating: 
Summary: A Gripping Tale of Heroism and Survival
Review: In May of 1939, The U.S.S Squalus, the Navy's newest submarine, was finishing her trials off the East Coast when something went terribly wrong. A hatch which was shown to be closed on the sub's control pannel was left open and thousands of gallons of water poured into the submarine as she was executing a test dive. The sub plunged to a depth of over two hundred feet. Thirty three men out of a crew of fifty nine survived as the sub landed on the bottom, but no crewmen had ever been rescued from such a depth. "Swede" Momsen, the developer of the Momsen lung and the submarine rescue chamber, was summoned by the Navy to assist in the rescue. It is in this part of the book where Maas does his best work. He tells Momsen's story with brilliant detail and puts the reader on the deck as the brave divers attempt to attach the diving chamber to the deck of the Squallus. Due to the heroic efforts of Momsen and his crew, the thirty three survivors are eventually rescued. But Momsen's work didn't end here. These same men also accomplished the amazing feat of actually raising the Squallus to the surface and returning her to port. This book describes in great detail the story of Swede Momsen and his heroic group of divers, who, despite over 600 individual dives, did not lose a single diver. This book also points out Momsen's other contributions to the submarine community, such as the development of wolfpacks, where a group of three submarines hunted enemy shiping as a group, and the correction of the faulty torpedo detonators which failed to explode. Swede Momsen had a huge part in the development of the American submarine fleet, and this excellent book is a fitting tribute to him and his brave men. I highly recommend this excellent book to anyone who enjoys submarines or good old fashioned heroism and courage.
Rating:
Summary: A Gripping Tale of Courage and Survival
Review: May, 1939-Europe was on the brink of war, and the United States had just launched her newest submarine, the Squalus. She was the pride of the submarine fleet and contained many features not found on older submarines, including air conditioning. However, on Tuesday, May 23, 1939, something went terribly wrong. A valve, which was shown to be closed on the submarine's contol pannel, was left open and thousands of gallons of sea water poured into the Squalus as she started one of her last test dives. Fifty nine men were suddenly trapped at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. Never before had surviving crewmen ever been rescued from a sunken submarine-until now. "Swede" Momsen, a U.S. Navy officer, risked his own life numerous times to rescue the trapped crewmen. Momsen was the man who developed the Momsen lung, a breathing device which allowed crewmen to ascend to the surface by using controlled breathing techniques. But perhaps his greatest achievement was the development of the submarine rescue chamber; a bell-shaped device which attached directly to the submarine over the hatch. By using this apparatus, Momsen and his men were able to successfully rescue the thirty three men left alive in the submarine after she went down. However, Momsen's job was not finished. After the crew was rescued, attempts were made to raise the submurged Squalus, and Momsen's team was again at the forefront of these efforts. On September 11, 1939-after over 600 individual dives and over 100 days after disappearing into the Atlantic, the Squalus was raised. Momsen's contributions to the Navy did not end with this mission. He helped correct the problem that submariners were having with the detonaters on their torpedoes by test firing them against a rock cliff and designing a new detonator. Also, it was Momsen who came up with the idea of deploying submarines in "wolfpacks" to attack enemy shipping. The results of these "wolfpacks" were devastating to Japanese shipping. This is an excellent book of how a determined man and his crew risked their lives to save the lives of others. If you enjoy submarines or just good hero stories, then read this excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible Hours - Great Story!
Review: Submarines, when first used, were cramped, smelly, dangerous places - and that was when tied up alongside. When they put to sea, or were actually used in combat, things got really bad. In the days before World War Two, if something went wrong with one of these notoriously complicated, fragile and ricketty craft, it was a virtual death sentence. If the sub was more than a few metres down, there was no safe way out. "Swede" Momsen, a brilliant officer in the US Navy, set out to change all that. Haunted by the frustration of being unable to raise a stricken submarine before the air ran out and the crew died, he almost singlehandedly devised the hardware and the techiques for performing submarine rescue operations. He fought official lethargy and bureaucratic malice every step of the way, and when the USS Squalus went down off New England on 23 May 1939 and failed to surface, his goal was to save the crew. He had tested his equipment and trained his divers in compression chambers and in calm waters, but out in the open sea, hundreds of feet down, the task was made incredibly difficult and dangerous. And there were only a few hours to act. Peter Maas has written the story of Momsen and these terrible hours in a tight, tense narrative, based on the official reports and interviews with those few who survived both the sinking and the years of war to follow. This is a tale with a human dimension, and almost every one of the sailors is given a name and a reason for living. Intercut with the apalling slow pace of the rescue operations, we learn of the mounting press interest and the strain on the relatives ashore, who were initially told very little beyond the fact that the sub had gone down. The rescue was successful, and all those who survived the initial sinking were saved, but the rescue itself is as tense a story as any I've read. Far too many times the whole enterprise was stalled, or hung up by errors or mishaps. At one stage 11 men were marooned in a diving bell hanging by a single strand of cable all but parted under the strain. I felt the same way. The final third of the book is devoted to the salvage and future history of the Squalus, another difficult and dangerous task supervised by Momsen, who found ways around frustrating obstacles, escaping instant death by a whisker at one stage. If you have an interest in submarines, the navy, brilliant inventions, or just people in general, then you will enjoy this book. This paperback edition could have used a few photographs and especially a diagram of the interior layout of the Squalus, but that is a minor niggle in this otherwise superb narrative. My hat is off to Swede Momsen, the sub's skipper LEUT Oliver Naiquin, and to Peter Maas himself for his work in bringing this story back from the past.
Rating:
Summary: Swede Momsen would have been pleased
Review: Mr. Maas brings out quite a bit of detail to this history. I had heard that the submarine Squalus had sunk and that this was the first time submaritime rescue was practical, but until recently I had never even heard of Swede Momsen, and when I did hear of him, it was just a snippet of a history channel program, and I forgot most of it. I had never heard of the S-4, the S-51, or any of the other disasters mentioned, and I did not know that before this event and before this man, submaritime rescue did not exist, for all intents and purposes, and the only trapped submariners rescued were rescued by sheer dumb luck as much as any thing else. This history that Mr. Maas showed us was chilling, and I can see why Swede Momsen was so determined to change the system, or in this case the lack of it. His dedication is the admirable, remarkable, and selfless quality that makes him stand out. Mr. Maas portrayed and conveyed this very well.
What also stands out is his attention to detail, which reveals an excellent researcher. How he detailed who went where, which one did what and so on was astounding. The number of people who looked at the signal board to make sure that the apertures were closed was particularly detailed and attention-catching, as
well as the observation that the man who went into the after-battery closed that hatch. The rest of the book permeates with such examples, particularly the section about the raising of the Squalus. The number of dives necessary to achieve the submarine's salvage was astounishing.
This was the first book of Mr. Maas' that I have read. I would recommend it to others, and I intend to find more to read.
Rating:
Summary: Excitement
Review: This book is a history that reads like a novel. It was very good, very exciting, and filled with interesting information about the beginnings of the Navy's deep sea rescue efforts. I much enjoyed it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book revolves around the 1939 rescue of crewmembers from the submarine Squalus. However, it's really a biography of Swede Momsen, an extraordinary character that probably no one has ever heard of. The book is very well written and easy to read. My only complaint is the total lack of illustrations of the sub itself. It makes it difficult for us land-lubbers to understand where certain people were at the time of the sinking. Despite that, it's one of the best books I've read recently and well worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Anatomy of a submarine rescue
Review: This book revolves around the somewhat dull recounting of the previously impossible undersea rescue of the crew of the U.S.S. Squalus. On the eve of WW2 in 1939, the sub, Squalus sinks about 235 feet deep in the Atlantic Ocean off Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Prior to this tragedy, a sunken sub usually meant the demise of the entire crew. This rescue was the first successful one and implimented techniques and devices which comprised the backbone of all future rescue endeavors. 33 of 59 crew members were saved. The book was a tribute to Admiral "Swede" Momsen, the creator of the diving bell and Momsen lung which were instrumental in this particular rescue. He was considered the greatest American submariner ever. Unfortunately the recounting of this heroic adventure read like a 300 page newspaper article. It was boring at times and rather tough to get through.
Rating:
Summary: Rating 6 Stars
Review: I personally regret not having the opportunity in life to meet such a true hero.
|
