"Richard Hough recounts the fleet's extraordinary seven-month journey from the Baltic to the Far East, which eventually became a mission of heroic futility when Port Arthur, and with it the entire Russian Pacific Fleet, fell. As Admiral Rozhestvensky's fleet lumbered through the Straits of Tsushima towards Vladivostok on 27 May 1905, the Japanese, in one of the most crushing naval victories of all time, utterly destroyed the Russian armada. The humiliating and total defeat of Russia was confirmed, giving rise to a new and dynamic superpower in the East."--BOOK JACKET.

Japan was closed to the world until 1854 and its technology then was literally medieval. Great Britain, France and Russia divided the globe in the nineteenth century, but Japan was catching up. Its army and navy were retrained by Western powers and equipped with the latest weapons and ships. Japan wanted to further emulate its European mentors and establish a protectorate over Korea, yet Japanese efforts were blocked by Imperial Russia who had their own designs on the peninsula. The Russo-Japanese War started with a surprise Japanese naval attack against an anchored enemy fleet still believing itself at peace. It ended with the Battle of Tsushima, the most decisive surface naval battle of the 20th century. This gripping study describes this pivotal battle, and shows how the Japanese victory over Russia led to the development of the dreadnought battleship, and gave rise to an almost mythical belief in Japanese naval invincibility.

Aimed at the general reader with an interest in World War II and the U.S. Navy, this book looks at the massive salvage effort that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor, beginning with the damage control efforts aboard the sinking and damaged ships in the harbor on 7 December 1941 and ending in March 1944 when salvage efforts on the USS Utah were finally abandoned. Dan Madsen describes the Navy's dramatic race to clear the harbor and repair as many ships as possible so they could return to the fleet ready for war. Numerous photographs, many never before published in books for the general public, give readers a real appreciation for the momentous task involved, from the raising of the USS Oglala in 1942 and the USS Oklahoma in 1943 to the eventual dismantling of the above-water portions of the USS Arizona.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • The inspiration for the major motion picture The Command, this riveting, brilliantly researched account details the deadliest submarine disaster in history and its devastating human cost. “Fast-paced . . . an emotion-packed and ultimately heartbreaking story that also sheds light on the Soviet military’s decline.”—The Washington Post On a quiet Saturday morning in August 2000, two explosions—one so massive it was detected by seismologists around the world—shot through the shallow Arctic waters of the Barents Sea. Russia’s prized submarine, the Kursk, began her fatal plunge to the ocean floor. Award–winning journalist Robert Moore presents a riveting, brilliantly researched account of the deadliest submarine disaster in history. Journey down into the heart of the Kursk to witness the last hours of the twenty-three young men who survived the initial blasts. Visit the highly restricted Arctic submarine base to which Moore obtained secret admission, where the families of the crew clamored for news of their loved ones. Drawing on exclusive access to top Russian military figures and the Kursk’s highly restricted Arctic submarine base, Moore tells the inside story of the Kursk disaster with factual depth and the compelling moment-by-moment tension of a thriller.

In August 1944 the British Pacific Fleet did not exist. Six months later it was strong enough to launch air attacks on Japanese territory, and by the end of the war it constituted the most powerful force in the history of the Royal Navy, fighting as professional equals alongside the U.S. Navy. How this was achieved by a nation nearing exhaustion after five years of conflict is a story of epic proportions in which ingenuity, diplomacy, and dogged persistence all played a part. This ground-breaking new work by David Hobbs describes the background, creation, and expansion of the British Pacific Fleet from its first tentative strikes, through operations off the coast of Japan, to its impact on the immediate post-war period. It includes the opinions of U.S. Navy liaison officers attached to the British flagships.

Two authorities on trends in warfare join forces to create a taut, convincing novel set in the near future in which a besieged America battles for its very existence

#1 bestselling author Patricia Cornwell returns to the world of gutsy medical examiner Kay Scarpetta in the seventh suspenseful novel in the forensic thriller series On a quiet day, away from the hustle of Richmond, in a small cottage on the Virginia coast, Dr. Kay Scarpetta receives a disturbing phone call from the Chesapeake police. Thirty feet deep in the murky waters of Virginia's Elizabeth River, a scuba diver's body is discovered near the Inactive Naval Shipyard.As the police begin searching for clues, the wallet of investigative reporter Ted Eddings is found. Unnerved by the possible identity of the victim, Scarpetta orders the crime scene roped off and left alone until she arrives. What was he doing there, searching for Civil War relics as the officer suggested, or was there a bigger story? As she rifles through the multitude of clues, a second murder hits much closer to home. This new development puts Scarpetta and her colleagues hot on the trail of a military conspiracy.

Starting its life as an attack transport in World War II—and one of the last five left afloat by war’s end—the USS Queens saw action at Iwo Jima and other hot spots in the Pacific theater. After the war, the ship became the SS Excambion, one of the “Four Aces” of American Export Lines: the only fully air-conditioned ships in the world at the time. In 1965, the versatile Excambion underwent yet another transformation—into a floating classroom. Recommissioned as the USTS Texas Clipper, the ship began a third life as a merchant marine training vessel with its home port in Galveston. For the next three decades the Texas Clipper would be home to merchant marine cadets, and by the time it was retired in 1996, it was the oldest active ship in the U.S. merchant marine fleet. Finally, the Texas Clipper, after protracted bureaucratic wrangling, was designated to be sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef to provide habitat for marine life. In 2007, the ship was towed to its final resting place, seventeen nautical miles off the coast of South Padre Island. Now, 136 feet below the surface, the venerable Texas Clipper lives on as the home to a wide variety of underwater species. Filled not only with meticulously researched technical and historical data about the ship’s construction, service record, crew procedures, and voyages, The Ship That Would Not Die also features lively anecdotes from crew members, passengers, and officers. More than 140 color and black-and-white photos illustrate the ship’s construction, its wide variety of shipboard life, the exacting process of making the Texas Clipper ready to become an artificial reef, and its final sinking in the Gulf of Mexico.

When midshipman Marshall learns of Archer's sacrifice, he discovers what he feels for Archer runs stronger and deeper than friendship.