Running Critical: The Silent War, Rickover, and General Dynamics ASIN: 0060153776 Binding: Hardcover List price: $19.95 USD

This book chronicles the political and corporate history of the 688 class nuclear attack submarine.  There is much insight into the methods and manner of Admiral Rickover and also a lot of material on the corporate goings-on at Electric Boat during the construction of these boats.  At the same time the Trident program was starting so it was a hectic era of sub construction in the USA.

- larger image -	Thunderball ASIN: B00000K0E9 Binding: DVD List price: $34.98 USD

The most underwater themed of the Bond films, this fourth in the series stars Sean Connery as 007.  Travel to the Bahamas as Bond works to recover nuclear weapons from a sunken British bomber.  SPECTRE villian Emilio Largo and his henchmen make things interesting.

Category: adventure, fictional

Hero: Connery, I mean, James Bond

Rating: 4 Nemos

- larger image -	U-571 (Collector's Edition) ASIN: B00003CXHJ Binding: DVD List price: $9.99 USD Amazon price: $8.49 USD

This action packed movie follows a fictional mission to recover a German Enigma encryption device.  Good effects and suspense.  Stars Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel (as COB), and Jon Bon Jovi.

Category: fictional WWII submarine adventure

Boats: Type VII u-boat,

Overall: 3 Nemos

- larger image -	Navy Times Book of Submarines ASIN: 0425157776 Binding: Hardcover List price: $31.95 USD

This is a very readable, engaging history of submarine technology, events and politics.  Highly recommended.  Contains a number of black and white illustrations and photos but is primarily text.

Covers submarines from very early origins (1580!) to present times.  The book is weighted towards the pre-1945 era: about one third of the book covers pre-1914 developments with much of the rest covering the two world wars.  There's relatively light coverage of the Cold War and present era - less than 50 pages. 

Category: submarine history

Technical content: average

Overall: excellent

- larger image -	Dark Waters: An Insider's Account of the NR-1, the Cold War's Undercover Nuclear Sub ASIN: 0451207777 Binding: Hardcover List price: $24.95 USD

Very entertaining history of the capable, unique NR-1, the only nuclear submersible yet built.  The coauthors include journalist Don Davis and member of the first crew, Lee Vyborny.  Mr. Vyborny tells some excellent stories from the years he spent during the NR-1's design, construction and early operating career.  After Vyborny leaves the crew the boat's history is told in third person but the stories are no less interesting.  For example, the interactions with Rickover are somehow written to be more amusing than irritating!

This book is similar to Blind Man's Bluff in its handling of covert cold war operations by the US Navy but the first person stories told by Lee Vyborny really pull the reader in and are very engaging.

Category: cold war nuclear submersible

Boats: NR-1

Heroes: NR-1 crew and, for getting it built, Admiral Rickover

Technical content: average

	Always another adventure, ASIN: B0006BRD9O Binding: Hardcover

This guy, Robert F. Marx, seems to evoke strong reactions: variously distaste for such a scallywag, fascination and respect for his reckless full experience of life, and disbelief that so many things can happen to one man.  An obsession with diving leads the author on an endless series of adventures from the dawn of the SCUBA age up to the mid-1960s.  There are side trips to hunt for lost Mayan cities and do research in Spanish shipping archives but much of the book takes place on and under the sea.

Note: This is out-of-print and isn't too easy to find.  The only Marx book I find in print now is Shipwrecks of the Americas.

Non-fiction Rating:  3 Ned Lands

Entertainment: 5

- larger image -	The Enemy Below ASIN: B0001NBMH6 Binding: DVD List price: $14.98 USD Amazon price: $9.49 USD

Kurt Jurgens and Robert Mitchum star in this film from 1957.  Also David Hedison, later of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," as the American executive officer.  The entertaining story presents a battle of wits between an American destroyer captain (Mitchum) and a German u-boat skipper (Jurgens) set in a bright, clean view of WWII.  Features probably the handsomest destroyer crew ever assembled and certainly the best-tanned u-boat captain.  Good things include some interesting characters, interesting dialog and nice shots aboard the US destroyer.  The u-boat is less well represented in terms of sets and equipment closeups.  Good depth charge scenes and a nice sonar sound.

Has a clear anti-war message and also a vaguely anti-Hitler German captain with whom it's easy to empathise.  Overall it contrasts strongly with Das Boot in terms of realism and grit although both films ultimately share a harsh view of u-boat life at war.

Category: fictional WWII chase drama

Realism: 3 (very deep dive in a Type VII, poor sub equipment)

Location: Atlantic Ocean

Boats: German Type VII, American destroyer

Heroes: clearly the German and American captains

Overall Rating: 3 Nemos

The USS Pampanito is a WWII US fleet sub that can be toured.  A part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park at Fisherman's Wharf, it's a beautiful place to visit especially if you don't mind crowds.  The Wharf is a popular tourist destination but getting aboard the Pampanito isn't too hard, and there wasn't much of a wait the Saturday that I toured her.

This boat is in the water and has been well maintained.  She's actually undergoing her fourth drydocking starting January 2006 and has been restored to her mid-summer 1945 condition.

Boat: Balao class US fleet sub

Location: Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, USA

Official website (online tour): http://www.maritime.org/tour/index.htm

- larger image -	Secrets Of A Civil War Submarine: Solving The Mysteries Of The H. L. Hunley ASIN: 1575058308 Binding: Hardcover List price: $18.95 USD Amazon price: $16.19 USD

Attractively illustrated book, for adolescent readers, that tells the story of the Confederate submarine Hunley and then quickly dives into describing the recovery and preservation of this vessel.  Compelling text tells the various phases of the Hunley story and keeps it interesting.  Over half of the book is on the recovery and preservation effort and what this has taught researchers about the boat and its last crew.  Illustrated with period photos, documents and paintings, along with modern photos of the recovered boat and its contents, recreations of the crews faces and original artwork illustrating the operation of the Hunley.

Heroes: archaeologists, and the Hunley's crews for bravery in operating such a craft

Boat: CS Hunley

Location: South Carolina, USA

Category: juvenile, historical wreck preservation

Technical content: Light

- larger image -	Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage ASIN: 006103004X Binding: Mass Market Paperback List price: $7.99 USD Amazon price: $7.99 USD

Very good, readable account of some important US submarine activities during the Cold War.  Espionage is a focus but this book includes amazing tales of trailing Soviet boomers and unravelling the loss of the Scorpion, along with stories on tapping Soviet undersea communications lines and recovering sunken Soviet boats.  It covers the political situation and provides good historical context along the way.

Category: military, cold war submarines

Location: Atlantic, Pacific Oceans, Barents Sea, Sea of Okhotsk 

Heroes: sub crew and officers

Boats:  US attack subs from "GUPPY" to 688(I) w/ mention of Seawolf and Virginia classes

Tech content: Average

Overall: Excellent 

Manned Submersibles is a fine review of small submarine technology and vehicles ala 1976. 

There is a large amount of technical information here of interest to enthusiasts and home builders.  It's not a textbook so you won't get formulas for computing crush depth, but it covers virtually every area of submersibles from ballasting systems to insurance. Down at the bottom of this page is a table of contents listing of the chapters on vehicle technology and operations.

This book was published by the US government and while a bit dated it is in the public domain and so can
be republished and freely distributed. There are a few sites hosting this book but here's the best that I've seen:

- larger image -	Silent Hunter III (DVD-ROM) ASIN: B00023XXN6 Binding: CD-ROM List price: $19.99 USD Amazon price: $43.88 USD

Category: WWII U-boat operations Boats: German Type II, VII, IX, XXI, and variants

Heroes: you the player, and the developers, Ubisoft Romania

Location: Atlantic Ocean

Synopsis: Buy this if you've ever played a sub game. This is the most comprehensive, best looking and operating subsim ever made.  You even have crew aboard your boats which may be a naval simulation first. Unscripted, nonlinear dynamic campaign mode. Single missions including the cornering of the Bismarck, Scapa Flow, and the capture of the U-505. Checkout Subsim.com to see the excitement over this game, primarily the number of mods that have been produced to enhance and refine various details. But it's pretty amazing right out of the box.

- larger image -	Below ASIN: B00005JKWG Binding: DVD List price: $14.99 USD Amazon price: $13.49 USD

Category: WWII American submarine fictional story

Boats: US sub

Heroes: captain played by Bruce Greenwood

Location: north Atlantic

Director: David Twohy

Recommended, for its beautiful cinematography of a WWII-era American submarine and for the inclusion of lesser-known WWII anti-sub technologies. This is primarily a horror story/mystery set aboard a US submarine in the Atlantic but it does a better job of giving insight into sub operations than a number of 'pure' submarine films. Checkout the DVD extras for unused scenes; the hot torpedo is worth seeing.

- larger image -	Hostile Waters ASIN: 0312966121 Binding: Mass Market Paperback List price: $6.99 USD

A page turner of a nuclear submarine disaster story, at least as good as the fictional Hunt for Red October.

Category: nuclear missile submarine, tragedy

Boats: Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-219, NAVAGA or YANKEE-1 class

Heroes: captain and crew

Location: Western Atlantic Ocean