Disasters of the Deep: A History of Submarine Tragedies

First published in 1986 as Few Survived and back by popular demand in a revised and updated edition, this book presents a comprehensive account of every peacetime submarine disaster from 1774 to the sinking of the Kursk in 2000. Noted naval historian Edwyn Gray examines many of the sinkings in considerable detail, analyzing what went wrong and describing attempts to rescue the crew and the vessel. In tandem he traces the development of the submarine from the earliest experimental submersibles of the late eighteenth century to the nuclear powered giants of today. Gray taps the resources of the United States, French Italian, Danish and Japanese navies, as well as the Royal Navy Submarine Museum and German U-Boat archive for this inclusive listing to provide an invaluable reference that also makes absorbing reading.