Reviewed By: David Ball
Cold is the Sea
Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Edward L. Beach
Class/Genre: Military Submarines
Dell, 1978, $ 3.50, 447 pp.
Cold is the Sea takes place in 1961. That was an interesting time in the development of submarines. Nuclear submarines were in use, but the procedures, weapons and sonar are still closer to WWII style diesel submarines than what we expect of the modern Nuclear submarine.
It's a bit strange to read of a Nuclear submarine that uses Active Sonar as part of it's regular operation. There are no satellite communications. Messages are sent in encrypted Morse code over long range radio frequencies. It can take an hour to send a report and get an acknowledgement.
The book tells the story of early operations by a missile submarine under the artic ice. The Russians consider that area to be their domain and try to stop the US from establishing its capability to launch missiles from subs hiding under the artic ice. Combat ensues and a daring rescue mission is needed.
The characters are well written and the story is plausible and interesting. It's a good book, but does tend to be a bit long winded. It goes into the lives of the navy families at length. There's over a hundred pages of story setup which gives the reader a good idea of Navy politics and concentrates on early nuclear engineer training. There's an admiral Brighting who's in charge of the nuclear programs. He's obviously based on the real-life admiral who was in charge of the development of the nuclear subs.
It's a good book, but I only gave it a 3.5 rating because it's so long winded. FYI, Beach was also the author of the book "Run Silent, Run Deep".
David Ball
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, David Ball
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