Dunmore, Spencer

Mahncke, Frank C.

English

U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons

Naval War College ReviewVolume 56Number 2 Spring Article 192003Lost Subs: From the Hunley to the Kursk, theGreatest SubmarinesEver Lost—and FoundFrank C. MahnckeSpencer DunmoreFollow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-reviewThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contactrepository.inquiries@usnwc.edu.Recommended CitationMahncke, Frank C. and Dunmore, Spencer (2003) "Lost Subs: From the Hunley to the Kursk, the Greatest SubmarinesEverLost—and Found," Naval War College Review: Vol. 56 : No. 2 , Article 19.Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol56/iss2/19Dunmore, Spencer. Lost Subs: From the Hunley tothe Kursk, the Greatest Submarines Ever Lost—and Found. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo, 2002.176pp. $35Service in the Confederate submarineCSS Hunley was not for the faint ofheart—on its first two sea trials, it sankwith a loss of nearly all hands. With afresh and stalwart crew, Hunley creptfrom Charleston on the night of 17February 1864 and sank the USSHousatonic with a contact torpedo.However, in the ensuing confusion andgunfire, Hunley was lost.For over one hundred years Hunley layundisturbed in the mud and silt ofCharleston’s harbor, until August 2000,when it was raised with an elaboratecat’s cradle of slings, braces, and foampads. CSS Hunley is now undergoing anarchaeological examination that isyielding a treasure trove of artifacts aswell as insights into the technology ofits time.Spencer Dunmore’s work, a hand-somely produced coffee-table book, hasmore substance than one might initiallyexpect. Dunmore’s accounts of the lossand recovery of the CSS Hunley, USSSqualus, HMS Thetis, and the RussianKursk, and the losses of the USSThresher and USS Scorpion, are interest-ing and contain notable new material.Like aircraft, submarines are inherentlysafe but very unforgiving of human andmechanical failures. Squalus (1939),Thetis (1939), and Thresher (1963) eachwas lost when its hull was breachedand seawater flooded in. The mainair-induction valve stuck open whenSqualis submerged, a torpedo-tubeouter door was inadvertently opened onThetis, and a seawater inlet pipe appar-ently failed catastrophically on Thresher.Torpedoes can be as lethal to the sub-marine that carries them as to the en-emy. In the years since the loss ofScorpion in 1968, its wreckage has beenphotographed several times by deep-seareconnaissance vehicles. These photo-graphs (many of which have been re-leased and are in Dunmore’s book), thetroubled history of the batteries used bythe submarine’s Mark 37 torpedoes,and engineering analysis suggest that aspontaneous and violent initiation of atorpedo battery led to a warhead deto-nation and hull rupture.The Russian submarine Kursk appearsto have suffered a similar fate in theBarents Sea in 2000. Western acousticdetection systems picked up two mas-sive explosions that correlated withKursk’s position. Naval engineers citedby Dunmore build a good case for thetheory that the first of these explosionscame from the hydrogen peroxide thatwas carried in Kursk’s torpedoes andthat the second resulted from the deto-nation of the torpedo’s warhead.The most fascinating and yet disap-pointing aspect of Dunmore’s book ishis descriptions of crew rescues and sal-vage—fascinating because these opera-tions are high among underwaterengineering feats, disappointing be-cause Dunmore treats them shallowly.When Squalus sank off Portsmouth,New Hampshire, the Navy had justplaced into service a diving bell for sub-marine rescue. Winching itself down ahalf-inch wire fastened to the forwardhatch of the Squalus 243 feet below, thebell ultimately rescued thirty-three ofthe fifty-five men aboard. The followingsummer, Squalus was raised with aB O O K R E V I E W S 1 5 91Mahncke and Dunmore: Lost Subs: From the Hunley to the Kursk, the Greatest SubmarinesEPublished by U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons, 2003complex system of cradles and support-ing pontoons. With each lift, it wasmoved into shallower water, grounded,then lifted again. It reached PortsmouthHarbor in September 1939. The techni-cal details of its salvage are one of thetruly great stories of deep-sea salvageoperations.Kursk was raised in the fall of 2001 andcarried back to Roslyakovo Shipyard.Raising the sub was no mean feat of un-derwater engineering—it weighedtwenty-four thousand tons underwaterand lay in 350 feet of water. Unfortu-nately, Dunmore gives but four pages tothis accomplishment. Happily, two ofthem are devoted to excellent drawingsof the techniques by which the damagedbow was removed, lift points attached tothe hull, and the submarine drawn upinto a specially prepared floating drydock. One could well spend a seriousamount of time studying these drawingsalone.As a comprehensive treatment of sub-marine loss and recovery, Lost Subs isuneven and technically superficial.However, its treatment of the Scorpionand Kursk disasters and the rich collec-tion of underwater and salvage photo-graphs will please the generalist and fillniches for the naval scholar.FRANK C. MAHNCKEJoint Warfare Analysis CenterStiehm, Judith Hicks. The U.S. Army War College:Military Education in a Democracy. Temple Univ.Press, 2002. 200pp. $69.50This is an in-depth and insightful exami-nation of the U.S. Army War College,one of the nation’s six senior service col-leges. Stiehm offers a comprehensivebook that reviews the history of thecollege, provides a typical class profile,offers a look at the faculty and the cur-riculum, and describes what a typical“Carlisle year” is like for the students.While analyzing the administration,Stiehm offers recommendations for im-proving the institution’s ability to pro-duce quality graduates. Stiehm believesthat after following her prescription forimprovements, the graduates would bebetter able to fight and win the nation’swars and would be better prepared toprovide sound, thoughtful advice to se-nior decision makers on matters of na-tional security and the application ofmilitary force in the pursuit of nationalobjectives.Stiehm is uniquely qualified to writethis book. She attended the Army WarCollege as a student-participant ob-server during the first semester of aca-demic year 1996–97, with the class of1997. Stiehm was fully integrated intothe seminar experience of the war col-lege and shared both the academic andsocial experiences of her classmates. Shealso served as a visiting professor at theU.S. Army Peacekeeping Institute andat the Army’s Strategic Studies Insti-tute, both located at Carlisle Barracks.Stiehm’s critical examination of theArmy War College is valuable for theinsightful information she shares,which is otherwise not available to thegeneral reader, but more importantlyshould prove valuable to the Depart-ment of Defense policy makers and de-cision makers responsible for theestablishment and maintenance of de-fense institutions. The complex andmultidimensional nature of the globalwar on terrorism has caused the UnitedStates to think about warfare in a newway. Stiehm’s work challenges those in1 6 0 N A V A L W A R C O L L E G E R E V I E W2Naval War College Review, Vol. 56 [2003], No. 2, Art. 19https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol56/iss2/19

Lost Subs: From the Hunley to the Kursk, the Greatest SubmarinesEver Lost—and Found

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Lost Subs: From the Hunley to the Kursk, the Greatest SubmarinesEver Lost—and Found

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