When the nuclear-powered submarine USS Triton was commissioned in November 1959, its commanding officer, Captain Edward L. Beach, planned a routine shakedown cruise in the North Atlantic. Two weeks before the scheduled cruise, however, Beach was summoned to Washington and told of the immediate necessity to prove the reliability of the Rickover-conceived submarine. His new secret orders were to take the Triton around the world, entirely submerged the total distance. This is Beach's gripping firsthand account of what went on during the 36,000 nautical-mile voyage whose record for speed and endurance still stands today. It brings to life the many tense events in the historic journey: the malfunction of the essential fathometer that indicated the location of undersea mountains and shallow waters, the sudden agonizing illness of a senior petty officer, and the serious problems with the ship's main hydraulic oil system. Intensely dramatic, Beach's chronicle also describes the psychological stresses of the journey and some touching moments shared by the crew. A skillful story teller, he recounts the experience in such detail that readers feel they have been along for the ride of a lifetime.

Personal narrative by the skipper of the nuclear submarine Triton, which circumnavigated the earth, submerged, in the spring of 1960.

"Submerged is romantic suspense that will keep you up at night!"--Bestselling Author Dee Henderson A sabotaged plane. Two dead deep-water divers. Yancey, Alaska was a quiet town...until the truth of what was hidden in the depths off the coast began to appear. Bailey Craig vowed never to set foot in Yancey again. She has a past, and a reputation--and Yancey's a small town. She's returned to bury a loved one killed in the plane crash and is determined not to stay even an hour more than necessary. But then dark evidence emerges and Bailey's own expertise becomes invaluable for the case. Cole McKenna can handle the deep-sea dives and helping the police recover evidence. He can even handle the fact that a murderer has settled in his town and doesn't appear to be moving on. But dealing with the reality of Bailey's reappearance is a tougher challenge. She broke his heart, but she is not the same girl who left Yancey. He let her down, but he's not the same guy she left behind. Can they move beyond the hurts of their pasts and find a future together?

Welcomed as the first book about American submarines in World War II to be written by a man who actually fought them, this compelling personal account of the war beneath the sea firmly established Edward L. Beach's reputation as a writer in the early 1950s. Given the survival rate of those in the silent service, it is a story many submariners did not live to tell. In fact, most of the crew of Beach's boat, the USS Trigger, were lost soon after he left for another assignment. A veteran of twelve war patrols, Beach's luck held out, and he authentically recaptures the moments of elation, desperation, and numbing fear that were part of the daily lives of these warriors as they hunted down the enemy in the Pacific. Beach helped sink the Trigger's first ships and survived more than his share of exploding depth charges from avenging warships. In the book, he weaves the story of his own boat with equally thrilling tales of other battle-hardened submarines and the brave and determined men who fought them against the Japanese. Beach's readers share in the destruction of five destroyers in four days and join in the deadliest game of all--stalking other submarines. They also come to understand the terror and uncertainty of being at the other end of the pursuit, silently sweating out depth-charge poundings in a leaking boat. For an authentic account of what went on under the waves, this book remains one of the very best.

Discover ancient civilizations that have disappeared beneath the ocean's surface and explore how the science of submergence adds to our knowledge of human history. The traces of much of human history – and that which preceded it – lie beneath the ocean surface; broken up, dispersed, often buried and always mysterious. This is fertile ground for speculation, even myth-making, but also a topic on which geologists and climatologists have increasingly focused in recent decades. We now know enough to tell the true story of some of the continents and islands that have disappeared throughout Earth's history, to explain how and why such things happened, and to unravel the effects of submergence on the rise and fall of human civilizations. In Worlds in Shadow Patrick Nunn sifts the facts from the fiction, using the most up-to-date research to work out which submerged places may have actually existed versus those that probably only exist in myth. He looks at the descriptions of recently drowned lands that have been well documented, those that are plausible, and those that almost certainly didn't exist. Going even further back, Patrick examines the presence of more ancient lands, submerged beneath the waves in a time that even the longest-reaching folk memory can't touch. Such places may have played important roles in human evolution, but can only be reconstructed through careful geological detective work. Exploring how lands become submerged, whether from sea-level changes, tectonic changes, gravity collapse, giant waves or volcanoes, helps us determine why, when and where land may disappear in the future, and what might be done to prevent it.

Universally praised for its powerfully authentic depiction of submarine warfare, Run Silent, Run Deep was an immediate success when published in 1955 and shot to the top of best-seller lists nationwide. In 1958, Hollywood adapted the novel for the big screen starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster. The New York Timessaid of the novel, “If ever a book had a ring of reality, this is it . . . combat passages rank with the most exciting written about any branch of the service.” The Saturday Review called the book “a classic,” and many reviewers compared its author to such greats as C. S. Forester and Erich Remarque. Today these accolades still ring true for Edward L. Beach’s gripping first novel of American submariners confronting a formidable Japanese navy in a vicious battle to control the Pacific. Beach’s taut and dramatic narrative, told with the intimacy of a confession, deals with two strong-headed men, Edward Richardson, the commander of the USS Walrus, and his executive officer, Jim Bledsoe. Bound together by wartime duty, the two are divided by jealousy, pride, and love for a beautiful woman. But long after the details of this famous novel fade from memory, what remains with us is a startling realization of the way it was, really was, in the silent service during World War II. Unlike many war novels, here is a story that deals with war from the perspective of command. With fidelity, Beach creates the anguish, agony, and triumphs of command decisions. Commander Richardson embodies all that is fine and human in an excellent naval officer. This is a monument, not to the misfits and the mistakes, but to those men who rose to greatness under the sometimes unbearable tensions of action.

“It was the first time I’d seen what the ocean may have looked like thousands of years ago.” That’s conservation scientist Gregory S. Stone talking about his initial dive among the corals and sea life surrounding the Phoenix Islands in the South Pacific. Worldwide, the oceans are suffering. Corals are dying off at an alarming rate, victims of ocean warming and acidification—and their loss threatens more than 25 percent of all fish species, who depend on the food and shelter found in coral habitats. Yet in the waters off the Phoenix Islands, the corals were healthy, the fish populations pristine and abundant—and Stone and his companion on the dive, coral expert David Obura, determined that they were going to try their best to keep it that way. Underwater Eden tells the story of how they succeeded, against great odds, in making that dream come true, with the establishment in 2008 of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA). It’s a story of cutting-edge science, fierce commitment, and innovative partnerships rooted in a determination to find common ground among conservationists, business interests, and governments—all backed up by hard-headed economic analysis. Creating the world’s largest (and deepest) UNESCO World Heritage Site was by no means easy or straightforward. Underwater Eden takes us from the initial dive, through four major scientific expeditions and planning meetings over the course of a decade, to high-level negotiations with the government of Kiribati—a small island nation dependent on the revenue from the surrounding fisheries. How could the people of Kiribati, and the fishing industry its waters supported, be compensated for the substantial income they would be giving up in favor of posterity? And how could this previously little-known wilderness be transformed into one of the highest-profile international conservation priorities? Step by step, conservation and its priorities won over the doubters, and Underwater Eden is the stunningly illustrated record of what was saved. Each chapter reveals—with eye-popping photographs—a different aspect of the science and conservation of the underwater and terrestrial life found in and around the Phoenix Islands’ coral reefs. Written by scientists, politicians, and journalists who have been involved in the conservation efforts since the beginning, the chapters brim with excitement, wonder, and confidence—tempered with realism and full of lessons that the success of PIPA offers for other ambitious conservation projects worldwide. Simultaneously a valentine to the diversity, resilience, and importance of the oceans and a riveting account of how conservation really can succeed against the toughest obstacles, Underwater Eden is sure to enchant any ocean lover, whether ecotourist or armchair scuba diver.

"Án amazed America read in the morning papers of May 11, 1960: 'Triton goes around globe submerged, retracing the route sailed by Magellan.' In a fantastic achievement, the Triton had completed a secret round-the-world voyage entirely under water. This almost unbelievable voyage of the world's largest and most powerful submarine was an important test of man's ability to endure long periods of confinement under the ocean's surface.The experiment was essential to America's newest defense system -- the Polaris submarine program. It also gave an indication of man's ability to journey in a sealed capsule to outer space."--Book jacket.