Ships Beneath the Sea

Those Magnificent Men In Their Diving Machines, A History Of Subs And Submersibles Is The Adventurous True Story Of Man’S Determination To Build Some Kind Of Boat That Will Enable Him To Travel Underwater. From Alexander’S Legendary Diving Bell In 350 Bc To Today’S Nuclear Submarines, They Are All Here. But More Than Just A Popular History Of Underwater Vehicles, The Author Looks Closely At The Men Behind Their Inventions. What Most Have In Common Is An Indominiable Belief In Their Invention Along With A Cast-Iron Courage To Test Their Creations. For Some, History Remembers Their Successes; Others Get Only A Mention In Their Obituaries. What Makes The Difference? The Reader Learns This For Himself As The Author Puts Him Into The Action. In The Middle Of The Night In The Inky Blackness Of The Ocean, You Are The One Squeezed Into That Narrow Iron Coffin With Seven Others Lined Up In The Hunley Cranking That Iron Rod In The Guttering Candlelight, Sweating And Gasping In The Over-Heated Air Of Your Confines As You Propel Yourself And The Bomb On Your Bow Toward Its Target. And Later, You Are Along With The Young Simon Lake Aboard His Wood And Canvass Argonaut Junior Creeping On Its Wheels Along The River Bottom As Simon Tells You The Boat Has An Air Lock That Will Let You Go Out Side And Collect Clams. And You Believe Him Because He Does And You Do! Along With The Drama Of These Experiences Are Also The Fruitcake Inventors Itching To Show You How Their Machine Screws Itself Through The Water At High Speeds And Other Pipe Dreams. Over 50 Rare Plans, Engravings And Old Photographs For These Inventions Help You Understand What Transpired During The Evolution Of This Nautical History To Where We Now Have Such Miracles As An Underwater Boat The Size Of Two City Blocks Powered Almost Indefinitely By A Chunk Of Uranium No Larger Than A Pineapple. Burgess Expertly Weaves You Through These Exciting Developments With Never A Dull Moment. Excerpt From Kirkus Review: “But Ww I Brought On The Deadly Real Thing--Notably A Floating Bomb Propelled By Compressed Air And Guided By Two Italian Saboteurs Who Sank An Austrian Dreadnought In The Adriatic (A Marvelously Funny Tale That Would Make A Perfect Vehicle For Woody Allen Or Peter Sellers). Also Included Are The First Deep-Sea Bathysphere Explorations Of Dr. William Beebe, The New Devices Of Piccard And Cousteau, And An Account Of The Search For Four Missing H-Bombs Sunk Off The Coast Of Spain. Sometimes Amusing, Often Exciting Stuff About The Many Dangerous Activities Down Under.”