Unknown Waters: A First-Hand Account of the Historic Under-ice Survey of the Siberian Continental Shelf by USS Queenfish (SSN-651) by Alfred S McLaren
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Book Reviews of Unknown Waters: A First-Hand Account of the Historic Under-ice Survey of the Siberian Continental Shelf by USS Queenfish (SSN-651)
Book Review: Not-so-deep water
Summary: 4 Stars
CAPT McLaren's splendid account of USS QUEENFISH's historic under-ice survey is well-written and gripping. As a former submarine sailor and arm-chair Antarctica junkie---I had little difficulty translating the submarine-speak and ice-speak. Some who have reviewed made the point of the "trade language"---I would offer the potential reader the following: CAPT McLaren's explained (more than once) the more esoteric terms---and had the grace to include an exhaustive glossary. I plan to purchase this book for one of my children--who has never served on a boat---and advise marking the glossary for quick reference. The prose is somewhat repetitive, but the nature of their work was repetitive. CAPT McLaren managed to make a topic that had potential to be dull and boring into a riveting story of a time not so long ago when submarine skipper's had no leash. Based on the story and a few people of acquaintance who know of CAPT McLaren, I could recommend this book for up and coming leaders---regardless the vocation. By all accounts, CAPT McLaren was/is thoughtful, honest, and courageous---good attributes for anyone, particularly anyone in a position of leadership.
Highly recommended.
Book Review: I liked it
Summary: 5 Stars
I liked this book. But then again I like stereo instructions. Not a lot of suspense or intrigue but seems to be a factual account of the under-ice survey of the continental shelf around the north pole. Written by the boats skipper don't look for a page turner. Written by a man who rightfully so garners the respect for the mission he and his men undertook, it's a slow book. Unless you have an interest in subs this might not be the book for you. But, if you have an interest in subs the book goes into a bit more detail in their operation then most. Book Review: Good Arctic Info, But Dry Reading
Summary: 2 Stars
My husband, who likes to read naval history, reports that this is a fine book if you're interested in the subject. However, he said it's rather dry reading, not suited to the general reader. Good info on the Arctic Ocean and the giant icebergs at the top of the world.Book Review: Dry and tedious to laymen, but worth it
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is a dry and tedious read for the layman, but with patience, turns out to be exciting and worth the read for those tenacious enough to stick with it. Anyone into accuracy, detail, and military protocol will appreciate this account of a dangerous and chilling (no pun intended) tremendous accomplishment.
There really is no other way to properly present this information. It does not need to be sensationalized, and I fear readers will be seeking a quick thrill and miss learning about this incredible accomplishment.
This book deserves appreciative readers!
Book Review: Military Correctness
Summary: 4 Stars
If you're interested in Polar exploration, you'll want to read this book. The dangers the USS Queenfish had to face demonstrate that, although modern arctic exploration by nuclear submarine has none of the extreme discomfort suffered by the early explorers, it remains quite dangerous. The crew of this ship could have died and been buried in arctic waters just as mysteriously as any 19th century explorer.
There is, however, one extremely odd aspect to the book. If you read an account of a similar exploration from a century ago, perhaps Erskine Childers's fictional The Riddle of the Sands (about exploring German coastal waters), you get a strong sense of a deeper purpose than merely a look-see. Childers's hero was quite aware of the naval struggle then taking place between Germany and Britain and was doing his part in that struggle by becoming knowledgeable about a difficult-to-sail region of the German coast.
You will find none of that in this book. It is true that we all know that the reason the US was willing to sent one of its most valuable attack submarines into such dangerous waters wasn't to map the ocean bottom for science or to study ice fields. It was the role those waters might play in a Cold War that pitted the U.S. against a powerful totalitarian regime that had killed over 20 million of its own citizens, a nation that had us targeted with thousands of nuclear warheads.
But what we all know isn't something Captain Alfred McLaren seems willing to say. I noticed only one brief, passing mention of that struggle in the entire book, a book in which he mentions the care his sub made to not go inside Soviet waters numerous times. And the index reveals that same attitude. Look up the Soviet Union, and you'll be referred to Russia, which only has six entries. Imagine an account of an account of a destroyer in the North Atlantic during 1943 that only mentions Germany six times and leaves uncertain why the ship is dropping depth charges at noises it picks up on sonar.
In short, this book suffers from a serious case of Military Correctness. Just as Political Correctness dictates that any criticism of the Soviet Union is a "return to McCarthyism," so this book bends over backwards to avoid suggesting that there was anything in the slightest wrong with the nation along whose coast they were sailing.
And it's just that inability to recognize evil as evil, either in retrospect or prospect, that's one of the primary reasons why we have wars. I just finished editing a book by someone who was warning, in the midst of WWI, that there was something wrong with Germany's ways of thinking that, if not corrected, would lead within a generation to another and yet more horrible war. Chesterton was Churchill before Churchill. In 1932, he would warn that Germany would turn to a dictator (Hitler), and if that dictator was not deterred by sufficient military force, the next European war would break out over a border dispute with Poland, precisely what happened in 1939. I see none of what Chesterton calls "moral imagination" in this book. In a retired military officer, that lack is particularly disturbing.
--Michael W. Perry, editor of Chesterton on War and Peace: Battling the Ideas and Movements that Led to Nazism and World War II
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