- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Harper; Subsequent edition (Sep 9 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060194804
- ISBN-13: 978-0060194802
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 16.5 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 476 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#1,821,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #64 in Books > Travel > United States > States > New Hampshire
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
May 23, 1939. Television was being advertised for the first time to American consumers. Europe was on the brink of war as Hitler and Mussolini signed an alliance in Berlin. These were the days before sonar and before the discovery of nuclear power revolutionized submarine design. Dependent on battery power, submarines were actually surface ships that "occasionally dipped beneath the waves." If a sub went down, "every man on board was doomed. It was accepted that there would be no deliverance."
Swede Momsen was, according to master storyteller Peter Maas, the "greatest submariner the Navy ever had," and he was determined to beat those odds. Momsen spent his career trying to save the lives of trapped submariners, despite an indifferent Navy bureaucracy that thwarted and belittled his efforts at every turn. Every way of saving a sailor entombed in a sub--"smoke bombs, telephone marker buoys, new deep-sea diving techniques, escape hatches, artificial lungs, a great pear-shaped rescue chamber--was either a direct result of Momsen's inventive derring-do, or of value only because of it." Yet on the day the Squalus sank, none of Momsen's inventions had been used in an actual submarine disaster.
In The Terrible Hours, Maas reconstructs the harrowing 39 hours between the disappearance of the submarine Squalus during a test dive off the New England coast and the eventual rescue of 33 crew members trapped in the vessel 250 feet beneath the sea. It's also the story of Momsen's triumph. Under the worst possible circumstances, Momsen led a successful mission and helped change the future of undersea lifesaving. Not only has Maas written a carefully researched and suspenseful tribute to a true hero, in the process he has salvaged a long-forgotten, riveting piece of American history. --Svenja Soldovieri
From Publishers Weekly
Maas, best known for his chronicling of the urban underworld (Underboss, Serpico, etc.), takes readers underwater for a thrilling account of the world's first rescue of a submarine. Before WWII, submariners were second-class citizens. Worse, until Charles "Swede" Momsen came along, it was standard procedure to treat downed subs as irretrievable. Fortunately for 33 men aboard the Squalus, Momsen had developed and tested pioneering rescue equipment (often at the risk of his own life) and was ready with his crew when the sub sank to a depth of 243 feet off Portsmouth, N.H., on May 23, 1939. While the captain of the Squalus kept the air slightly toxic so that his crew stayed drowsy and therefore docile, Momsen lowered his huge pear-shaped diving bell until it made contact with the sub's deck, then began to bring the men up in groups. Bad weather threatened, and then, on the last ascent, the cable tangled, and the final group of men had to be lowered to the ocean floor again and there await repairs. To the amazement of the surface crew, who had telephone contact with the occupants of the bell, they maintained morale by singing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." Unfortunately, 26 men had been drowned in the first few minutes of the sinking, and their bodies were not retrieved until the Squalus was recovered 113 days after the mishap. Maas anchors the gripping story in Momsen, whom he portrays as a larger-than-life hero, a brainy, brave iconoclast of the kind one associates with action movies. It's a white-knuckler of a readAbut it's not for the claustrophobic. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
It was a Tuesday, May 23, 1939. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
It was a Tuesday, May 23, 1939. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Courage, Determination & Imagination,
By
This review is from: Terrible Hours (Mass Market Paperback)
This story illustrates the benefit of those visionary, courageous individuals who put their ideas into action and make the world a better place. In this case, the story is of Charles "Swede" Momsen and the recovery of the crew of the sub "Squalis" in 1939. That story alone is worth the read, but its also interesting to realize all of the rescue, submarine and simple diving innovations that came from Momsen's efforts. Bravo.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Exceptional Individual Saving Men in Undersea Frontier,
By
This review is from: Terrible Hours (Hardcover)
After the loss of the Kurst a few years ago, there was an occasional mention of Lt Swede Momsen and all this very rare individual brought to the US Navy. Peter Maas does an excellent job of documenting Swede's contribution in rescuing the sailors from the Squalus in 1939. Momsen was responsible for the Navy's pioneering work with mixed gas deep water breathing, inventing a breathing apparatus for sailor to make free ascendants and developing the diving bell to save men from stranded submarines. Each one of the sailor who got off the Squalus can thank the remainder of the lives for Momsen for not giving up in the face of the Navy bureaucracy. One comes away from this book with an even higher level of respect for all those sailors endured during those terrible hours. An easy read that will keep your attention from beginning to end.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Terrible Hours,
By Scott Allen (Kittery, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Terrible Hours (Hardcover)
I like the way that Peter Maas wrote the book cause you feel like you're in it by all the details in the book. But, I thought it was bad for all the men to go down, but I thought it was cool that all but one was rescued in the sub. It was a long time for them and it was not cool that they when down cause of the vents in the Squalas because the Christmas tree board. It was the best rescue under water ever in history. I thought it was a god idea that Momsen came up with the suit but, they didn't use that they used a chamber and brought and got all them men air before so, that they could live longer so, that they could be rescue I thought it was amazing that they got the sub and men back and the sub, back the work just under name Sailfish and not under the Squalas. So, I thought it a 4 Star book for history people to read.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Americas > United States > 20th Century
- Books > History > Military > Naval
- Books > History > Military > United States
- Books > History > United States > 20th Century
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Canadian
- Books > Nonfiction > Current Events > Poverty > Social Services & Welfare
- Books > Nonfiction > Transportation
- Books > Outdoors & Nature > Travel > Adventure
- Books > Travel > Specialty Travel > Adventure
- Books > Travel > United States > States > New Hampshire
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
