Lost Subs [Hardcover]

Spencer Dunmore (Author), Jonathan Blair (Photographer), Brian Skerry (Photographer), Robert D. Ballard (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

As millions have come to know from such immensely popular books and movies as The Hunt for Red October and U-571, the world of submarines is secretive and dangerous. On the ocean floor lie over a century and a half of subs, lost both in war and in peace. Now, for the first time, the individual stories of these sunken ships are woven together to create an amazing history of underwater warfare and exploration-and the price that hundreds of subs and thousands of sailors have paid. In gripping text and powerful images (including state-of-the-art contemporary underwater photographs), Lost Subs chronicles the fate of some of the most famous subs in naval history-from the sinking of the Confederate Army's sub Hunley to the recent loss of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk. With a wealth of archival material, modern and period photographs, and stunning paintings by renowned Titanic artist Ken Marschall, this definitive illustrated history brings to life the museum of submarines resting in their underwater graves and the submariners on "eternal patrol." And it vividly re-creates the missions to explore and raise many famous sunken subs, including the Hunley and the Kursk-missions sometimes as fraught with peril as any wartime duty. Filled with mystery, drama, and daring, and as current as today's headlines, Lost Subs is a powerful, true thriller.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Every few years, perhaps thanks to movies like The Hunt for Red October or Titanic, there's a groundswell of interest in bottom-of-the-ocean booty. But year in and year out, there are those who find the subject compelling regardless, those for whom ploughing through stories of the ocean's ferocity and man's folly is treasure enough. This illustrated history is for them. "From poor, primitive Hunley a Confederate sub that was "essentially an overgrown boiler" to the atomic submarine Kursk," Dunmore (In Great Waters) shares tales of disasters, recoveries and subsequent investigations. Full of archival photos, illustrations, diagrams and lushly colored paintings, all packed around nautical stories of warfare and bad luck, this volume traces a brief history of submarining and some of its more memorable losses. Written in simple yet propulsive prose, the volume paints vivid characters caught in treacherous, suffocating circumstances, and never skimps on the details of the technology.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Beginning with a history of the first attempts at submarine invention, this book provides a chronological look at some of the best-known submarines and the men responsible for the major innovations. The first one discussed, the CSS (Confederate States Ship) H. L. Hunley, is revealed as a marvel of engineering for its time. Dunmore pieces together information from salvage work and historical documentation to present a solution to the mystery of why it sank. In this same manner, each chapter describes the submarines of a specific time period and technological level, as well as their fate. Few are resurrected from the icy depths, but those that are bear witness to the efforts and marvels of technology, engineering, and creative thinking. Paralleling the tragic accidents are the advances that made submarines safer, easier to escape from, and engineered to allow for more sailors to survive until surface help arrives. While these vessels are far safer now than ever before, accidents still cause massive loss of life, as exemplified by the last submarine discussed in the book, the mighty Russian Kursk. Dunmore's compelling work is straightforward and easy to read. Abundant illustrations, including photographs, reproductions, and other visuals, keep the interest high and the pages turning.
Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306811405
• ISBN-13: 978-0306811401
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 9.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,132,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For Those in Peril on the Sea, December 22, 2002

By 

William Holmes "semloh2287" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Lost Subs (Hardcover)

If you are looking for a quick overview of the history of submarines and submarine disasters, "Lost Subs" provides several hours of interesting reading.

The book describes the historical development of the submarine, from Bushnell's Turtle and Fulton's Nautilus, through the Hunley, the Holland, and the U-boats of the two World Wars, and on to the nuclear boats of the Cold War. The text is filled with photographs of submarine wreckage and rescue efforts, dramatic paintings of submarines at sea, and diagrams showing how sumarines work. Especially interesting is a detailed recreation of the CSS Hunley's pyrrhic victory against the hapless USS Housatonic during the American Civil War, together with some interesting speculation about why the Hunley sank after its successful attack.

The book's main weakness is that it surveys a big field that has been thoroughly covered in other works. If you enjoy digging into the details, this book may disappoint you. But if you like your maritime narratives to be accompanied by dramatic and often moving photographs and paintings, "Lost Subs" will be a very enjoyable adventure.

If you would like to explore the subject in more detail, try:
Peter Hutchhausen, "Hostile Waters" (a near catstrophe when a Soviet boomer experiences a missile tube failure);
Brayton Harris "The Navy Times Book of Submarines: A Political, Social and Military History" (everything you always wanted to know about the history of submarines, from the 1620s on)
Edwin Gray, "Few Survived: A History of Submarine Disasters" (the title says it all)
John Craven, "The Silent War: The Cold War Battle Beneath the Sea"
Sontag & Drew, "Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage" (hard to put down)
Hicks & Kropf, "Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine"

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Light-weight history, but gorgeous images, January 29, 2004

By 

tranq45 (from inside your closet of nightmares.) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lost Subs (Hardcover)

Lost Subs isn't heavy-duty history by anyone's standards. Skimming lightly over material covered more completely in scholarly books, Lost Subs allows its pictures to do the heavy lifting, and what a wise choice that is! Lavishly illustrated, Lost Subs covers wrecked boats of every era, and provides limited, but relevent background on each era along with discussion of the individual wrecks. Drawings, paintings, and photos bring to ghostly life boats both famous and obscure.

To this former submariner, this book feels more like a tour of historic graveyards, complete with color commentary on the 'lives, times, and families' of the deceased boats, than it does academic 'History.' All submariners fear ending their lives on the bottom of the sea, though we don't discuss it much. This book shows another side to such an fate, in the remembrance of those who come after. These boats, these gravestones in the deep, punctuate and anchor that remembrance.

If you want scholarly depth, or stirring stories of war, go elsewhere. If you want to remember the lost or reflect on the fate of the men who trusted their lives to the deep, then Lost Subs is the book for you.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent but disappointing, September 2, 2009

By 

G. Rogers (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lost Subs: From the Henley to the Kursk, the Greatest Submarines Ever Lost -- and Found (Hardcover)

I'm a fan of WWII Naval history, and I bought a copy of this book at a reduced price--about 10 bucks. I'm glad I paid no more than that. Some of the pictures are compelling, but overall, the book is a very cursory look at a pretty sizeable topic. It might make for a good coffee table book, but there aren't enough pictures. It's certainly not a detailed history--more information on any of the sinkings listed can easily be found on any of a dozen general websites. The war in the Pacific gets half as many pages as the sinking of the Kursk? There seems to be a lack of effort/research on the author's part toward anything comprehensive, or to really put together a definitive pictoral history. What you get is a smattering of both, which is, after reading this from cover to cover in less than an hour and a half, unsatisfying.