Tom Ryan, best-selling military novelist, has arranged a ride to familiarize himself with submarines. On August 10, 1991 he arrives at USS Haddock (SSN 621) as it prepares to depart San Diego for Japan. It would be a final deployment before going to the shipyard for nuclear defueling and decommissioning.
The transit is routine with plenty of opportunity for training. It doesn't stay routine when Haddock is diverted to search for three Soviet submarines that had deployed from their base. Then events in the Soviet Union result in Haddock being given unprecedented orders. As history is made in Moscow events proceed under the ocean.
Join Tom Ryan aboard Haddock and enjoy the ride.
There have been many nuclear submarine novels but, to those that have served on submarines, they are not realistic. Captain Schwartz commanded Haddock just prior to the time depicted in the novel and has tried to make the action as true to life as possible while telling an exciting story. After reading you should appreciate the challenges faced every day by the dedicated men, and now women, that serve in the Submarine Force in the United States Navy.