The terrible hours---by: peter maas

I would recommend the book to any one who would enjoy a good bit of history and all those who enjoy rescue books. The book is about how people from the U.S.A rescue are trying to rescue the 31 survivors of the sunken submarine Squalus. The writer described how the submarine got ready for its test dive, and then it went down to the 250 feet under the sea level. Finally, when the captain saw that the sub was sinking towards the bottom, he realized some thing was wrong. Because the sub was flooded at the rear section, all of the electronic equipment is knocked out and they are stuck under the sea with not electronic heating system and no way of getting out. All they had were some signal flares, which were hard to be seen in the vast blue sea and each other. One hour past the time that the sub was supposes to return back to port. The people at the port felt that something was wrong. Then they tried to message the sub, no response came back. The U.S.A was quite worried as the sub was supposed to be the finest sub at the time. Then came the rescue and the writer described the rescue in such fine details it made the book come to life.

Monologue:

What should I do, we are 250 feet below the sea with no heating elements and the temperature is below zero. Though we have plenty of food and water, none of it can be heated. And the oxygen, we don’t have an infinite supply of it. I have already given the men Momsen lungs to use as breathing mask when the air became too bad to breath but how long can the lungs last. I am the captain of the ship and therefore I cannot panic. But what I am I suppose to do? We have already sent out 8 signal rockets but there is not a single sound of an incoming rescue ship. This is hopeless. But still I must keep heart for I am the ship’s captain and I need to set the example for everyone.

What Captain Naquin would think before he first hard the sound of a rescue ship.

I do not believe that the author is bias in my book. Though it is a non-fiction book, the writer has nothing to be bias about. He is simply retelling a real historic event. Though he might credit Momsen a bit more, but it is still far from bias. The author has done a good job describing the events from the time when the sub was sinking to the time that everyone had been rescued.