Unknown Waters: A First-Hand Account of the Historic Under-Ice Survey of the Siberian Continental Shelf by USS Queenfish (SSN-651)

by Alfred S. McLaren

Charting the Siberian continental shelf during the height of the Cold War
Unknown Waters tells the story of the brave officers and men of the nuclear attack submarine USS Queenfish (SSN-651), who made the first survey of an extremely important and remote region of the Arctic Ocean. The unpredictability of deep-draft sea ice, shallow water, and possible Soviet discovery, all played a dramatic part in this fascinating 1970...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0817316027
• ISBN13: 9780817316020
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 1.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

I liked it

I liked this book. But then again I like stereo instructions. Not a lot of suspense or intrigue but seems to be a factual account of the under-ice survey of the continental shelf around the north pole. Written by the boats skipper don't look for a page turner. Written by a man who rightfully so garners the respect for the mission he and his men undertook, it's a slow book. Unless you have an interest in subs this might not be the book for you. But, if you have an interest in subs the book goes into a bit more detail in their operation then most.

Military Correctness

If you're interested in Polar exploration, you'll want to read this book. The dangers the USS Queenfish had to face demonstrate that, although modern arctic exploration by nuclear submarine has none of the extreme discomfort suffered by the early explorers, it remains quite dangerous. The crew of this ship could have died and been buried in arctic waters just as mysteriously as any 19th century explorer. There is, however, one extremely odd aspect to the book. If you read an account of a similar exploration from a century ago, perhaps Erskine Childers's fictional The Riddle of the Sands (about exploring German coastal waters), you get a strong sense of a deeper purpose than merely a look-see. Childers's hero was quite aware of the naval struggle then taking place between Germany and Britain and was doing his part in that struggle by becoming knowledgeable about a difficult-to-sail region of the German coast. You will find none of that in this book. It is true that we all know that the reason the US was willing to sent one of its most valuable attack submarines into such dangerous waters wasn't to map the ocean bottom for science or to study ice fields. It was the role those waters might play in a Cold War that pitted the U.S. against a powerful totalitarian regime that had killed over 20 million of its own citizens, a nation that had us targeted with thousands of nuclear warheads. But what we all know isn't something Captain Alfred McLaren seems willing to say. I noticed only one brief, passing mention of that struggle in the entire book, a book in which he mentions the care his sub made to not go inside Soviet waters numerous times. And the index reveals that same attitude. Look up the Soviet Union, and you'll be referred to Russia, which only has six entries. Imagine an account of an account of a destroyer in the North Atlantic during 1943 that only mentions Germany six times and leaves uncertain why the ship is dropping depth charges at noises it picks up on sonar. In short, this book suffers from a serious case of Military Correctness. Just as Political Correctness dictates that any criticism of the Soviet Union is a "return to McCarthyism," so this book bends over backwards to avoid suggesting that there was anything in the slightest wrong with the nation along whose coast they were sailing. And it's just that inability to recognize evil as evil, either in retrospect or prospect, that's one of the primary reasons why we have wars. I just finished editing a book by someone who was warning, in the midst of WWI, that there was something wrong with Germany's ways of thinking that, if not corrected, would lead within a generation to another and yet more horrible war. Chesterton was Churchill before Churchill. In 1932, he would warn that Germany would turn to a dictator (Hitler), and if that dictator was not deterred by sufficient military force, the next European war would break out over a border dispute with Poland, precisely what happened

Unknown Waters

Excellent book. Well written and very interesting. Recommended reading for all submariners and those interested in Arctic research and exploration.

Excellent book

Well written account of life on a submarine at the heart of the cold war. Worth a read.

Captain Fred McLaren's Well-Told Story

Captain Fred McLaren's well-told story about cold war submarining in the 1960s, and through to the early 1970s, is a good read for armchair travelers, arctic explorers, and scientists. McLaren has provided lots of good photos that help humanize the book. Unknown Waters provides a first-hand account of life and exploration in a nuclear submarine, the Queenfish, while it and its crew explored and mapped important and remote regions of the Arctic Ocean. The Arctic-Siberian Shelf Expedition of the 1970s represents the bulk of the story. McLaren, using the first person, describes in fascinating detail how a giant nuclear attack submarine operates under thick polar ice and makes its way between icebergs that penetrate long distances below the surface. Chapter 11 is of special interest to the layman; it includes the submarine surfacing at the North Pole and how it got there. McLaren provides a lot of photos of the surfaced submarine with crew members, including McLaren, posing with Jack Patterson dressed as Santa Claus on August 5, 1970. It was nice to read a personalized description of the legendary Admiral Rickover and how he selected his submarine captains, an ordeal for any self-respecting naval officer. McLaren sat through 15 interviews with Rickover and thus became an expert on where to sit for an advantage and how to respond to challenging questions. The reader will end up with a good feeling and lots of respect for the Admiral. McLaren has provided a good index of 11 pages that can help the reader to back into the book to find favorite stories.