The Terrible Hours: Summary and book reviews of The Terrible Hours by Peter Maas, plus links to an excerpt from The Terrible Hours and a biography of Peter Maas.
The Terrible Hours The Man Behind the Greatest Submarine Rescue in History
by Peter Maas
Hardcover: Oct 1999,
240 pages.
Paperback: Aug 2000,
320 pages.
On the eve of World War II, America's newest submarine plunged helplessly to the North Atlantic bottom during a test dive. Miraculously, thirty-three crew members still survived. While their wives and girlfriends waited in nearly unbearable tension on shore, their ultimate fate would depend on one man.
In this thrilling true narrative of terror, heroism and courage in the depths of a malevolent ocean, prizewinning author Peter Maas brings us in vivid detail a blow-by-blow account of the disaster and its uncertain outcome. The sub was the Squalus. The man was a U.S. Navy officer, Charles "Swede" Momsen, an extraordinary combination of visionary, scientist and man of action. Until his advent, it was accepted that if a submarine went down, her crew was doomed. But Momsen, in the face of an indifferent, often sneering naval bureaucracy, battling red tape and disbelieving naysayers every step of the way, risked his own life again and again against the unknown in his efforts to invent and pioneer every escape and rescue device, every deep-sea diving technique, to save an entombed crew. With the crippled, partially flooded Squalus lost on the North Atlantic floor, Momsen faced his personal moment of truth: Could he actually pluck those men from a watery grave? Had all his work been in vain?
The legacy of his death-defying probes into our inner space remains with us today, and in this depiction of the perseverance and triumph of the human spirit, Swede Momsen is given his rightful place in the pantheon of true American heroes.
New York Times Book Review
Mr. Maas...proves once again there is little he cannot achieve with the written word.
Boston Globe
Peter Maas offers insights only the best reporters can unearth.
Boston Globe
Peter Maas offers insights only the best reporters can unearth.
Los Angeles Times Book Review
Each time I pick up Maas, I feel that I have been given a backstage pass to an American moment.
New York Times Book Review
Mr. Maas...proves once again there is little he cannot achieve with the written word.
Tom Brokaw
Peter Maas has given us a suspenseful tale of terror, courage, heroism and American military genius. I couldn't put it down.
Tom Brokaw
Peter Maas has given us a suspenseful tale of terror, courage, heroism and American military genius. I couldn't put it down.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Don Van Nostrand
Gripping Tale. Well written. This book was hard to put down. Other reviewer wrote that the book jumped around too much. ?????? Hmmmm... guess I have A.D.D. because I thought all the flashbacks explained what was going on and why as the plot... Read More
Rated of 5
by nick
This book was horrible, one chapter you would be reading about the characters in the submarine, the next minute u are in a flashback that lasted an entire chapter. I felt this book jumped around too much and makes the reader fustrated. Peter... Read More
A harrowing, adrenaline-charged account of America's worst naval disaster at sea -- and of the heroism of the men who, against all odds, survived.
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Tom Brokaw
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by Don Van Nostrand
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by nick
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