The Death of the USS Thresher
The Story Behind History's Deadliest Submarine Disaster
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Narrated by:
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Sean Crisden
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By:
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Norman Polmar
About this listen
When she first went to sea in April of 1961, the US nuclear submarine Thresher was the most advanced submarine at sea, built specifically to hunt and kill Soviet submarines. In The Death of the USS Thresher, renowned naval and intelligence consultant Norman Polmar recounts the dramatic circumstances surrounding her implosion, which killed all 129 men onboard in history's first loss of a nuclear submarine.
This revised edition of Polmar's 1964 classic is based on interviews with the Thresher's first command officer, other submarine officers, and the designers of the submarine. Polmar provides recently declassified information about the submarine and relates the loss to subsequent US and Soviet nuclear submarine sinkings as well as to the escape and rescue systems developed by the navy in the aftermath of the disaster.
The Death of the USS Thresher is a must-listen for the legions of fans who enjoyed the late Peter Maas' New York Times best seller The Terrible Hours.
©2004 Norman Polmar (P)2017 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Early in 1968, a nuclear-armed Soviet submarine sank in the waters off Hawaii, hundreds of miles closer to American shores than it should have been. Compelling evidence strongly suggests that the sub sank while attempting to fire a nuclear missile.
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Twaddle. Just twaddle...
- By Scott on 10-13-14
By: Kenneth Sewell, and others
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Sink ‘Em All
- Submarine Warfare in the Pacific
- By: Charles A. Lockwood
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Sink 'Em All was originally published in 1951 by Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, the US Navy commander of the Pacific submarine fleet during World War II. Lockwood, in his leadership role, knew the skippers and crews of the submarines and retells their wartime successes and tragedies with an intimacy and realism often missing in second-hand accounts.
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Best of the best
- By Robert on 08-29-18
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Blind Man's Bluff
- The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage
- By: Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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No espionage missions have been kept more secret than those involving American submarines. Now, Blind Man's Bluff shows for the first time how the navy sent submarines wired with self-destruct charges into the heart of Soviet seas to tap crucial underwater telephone cables. It unveils how the navy's own negligence might have been responsible for the loss of the USS Scorpion, a submarine that disappeared, all hands lost, 30 years ago.
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best Cold War documentary...
- By Kojoukhinator Sr. on 11-15-17
By: Sherry Sontag, and others
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U.S.S. Seawolf
- Submarine Raider of the Pacific
- By: Gerold Frank, James D. Horan, Joseph Eckberg
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The USS Seawolf was one of the greatest submarine raiders of all time. Having narrowly avoided the attack on Pearl Harbor the Seawolf set out for the seas of the Pacific to wreak havoc on Japanese shipping. Joseph Melvin Eckberg was on the Seawolf from her maiden voyage and remained with her until January 1943. As chief radioman he was instrumental in assisting Captain Frederick Warder to find and destroy enemy targets. From the claustrophobia of being trapped under water and the overwhelming fear of depth charges to the joys of aiding the war-effort and the camaraderie on the ship.
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Unfortunately not very good
- By Jason on 03-29-18
By: Gerold Frank, and others
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Last Days of the Concorde
- The Crash of Flight 4590 and the End of Supersonic Passenger Travel
- By: Samme Chittum
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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On July 25, 2000, a Concorde, the world's fastest passenger plane, was taking off from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris when it suddenly burst into flames. An airliner capable of flying at more than twice the speed of sound, the Concorde had completed 25 years of successful flights, whisking wealthy passengers - from diplomats to rock stars to corporate titans - between continents on brief and glamorous flights. Yet on this fateful day, the chartered Concorde jet, en route to America, crashed and killed all 109 passengers and crew onboard and four people on the ground.
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A Solid Introduction
- By Reggie on 03-03-19
By: Samme Chittum
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Heroes Beneath the Waves
- True Submarine Stories of the Twentieth Century
- By: Mary Nida Smith
- Narrated by: Paul Christy
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In Heroes Beneath the Waves, many brave men who rode submarines to great depths and across the oceans into unknown territory share their experiences, fears, and thoughts. They allow us to travel back in time through their memories. Trained for years to keep silent - for "loose lips sink ships" - many still believe what they know to be classified and refuse to disclose even the minutest of recollections. Others, however, want to leave a legacy of reminiscences for people to learn and live by - to know that freedom is not free.
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Reading Straight from Wikipedia is not a book!
- By Andrew Scott McClanahan on 03-28-16
By: Mary Nida Smith
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Thresher
- By: Michael Cole
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In the aftermath of a hurricane, a series of strange events plague the coastal waters off Florida. People go into the water and never return. Corpses of killer whales drift ashore, ravaged from enormous bite marks. A fishing trawler is found adrift, with a mysterious gash in its hull. Transferred to the coastal town of Merit, police officer Leonard Riker uncovers the horrible reality of an enormous thresher shark lurking off the coast. Forty feet in length, it has taken a territorial claim to the waters near the town harbor.
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WHAT A BRILLIANT SURPRISE!
- By Malissa Williams on 08-26-19
By: Michael Cole
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Stealth
- The Secret Contest to Invent Invisible Aircraft
- By: Peter Westwick
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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On a moonless night in January 1991, a dozen US aircraft appeared in the skies over Baghdad. To the Iraqi air defenses, the planes seemed to come from nowhere. Each aircraft was more than 60 feet in length and with a wingspan of 40 feet, yet its radar footprint was the size of a ball bearing. Here was the first extensive combat application of Stealth technology. And it was devastating.
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Good Overview of the original development
- By Amazon Customer on 08-01-22
By: Peter Westwick
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War Beneath the Sea
- Submarine Conflict During World War II
- By: Peter Padfield
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 25 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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This riveting chronicle of submarine warfare is the first to cover all the major submarine campaigns of the war, describing, in detail, the operations of the British, American, Japanese, Italian, and German submarine and anti-submarine forces. Beginning with a vivid re-creation of the sinking of the passenger liner Athenia by a German U-boat in September 1939, critically acclaimed military historian Peter Padfield's compelling narrative casts an unflinching eye on the devastating consequences of maritime warfare.
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Fills in the gaps of other submarine books
- By Ben on 05-19-21
By: Peter Padfield
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Moon Shot
- The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings
- By: Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, Jay Barbree, and others
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation's most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. The first into space was Alan Shepard; the last was Deke Slayton, whose irregular heartbeat kept him grounded until 1975. They spent the 1960s at the forefront of NASA's effort to conquer space, and Moon Shot is their inside account of what many call the 20th century's greatest feat - landing humans on another world.
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A Definitive Summary of Our Manned Space Missions
- By Robert on 08-15-19
By: Alan Shepard, and others
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Atoms and Ashes
- A Global History of Nuclear Disasters
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Atoms and Ashes recounts the dramatic history of nuclear accidents that have dogged the industry in its military and civil incarnations since the 1950s. Through the stories of six terrifying major incidents—Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima—Cold War expert Serhii Plokhy explores the risks of nuclear power, both for military and peaceful purposes, while offering a vivid account of how individuals and governments make decisions under extraordinary circumstances.
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This was a pretty sensational and biased book.
- By J. Seawright on 06-11-22
By: Serhii Plokhy
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Wahoo
- The Patrols of America's Most Famous World War II Submarine
- By: Richard H. O'Kane
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The career of the USS Wahoo in sinking Japanese ships in the farthest reaches of the Empire is legendary in submarine circles. Christened three months after Pearl Harbor, Wahoo was commanded by the astonishing Dudley W. "Mush" Morton, whose originality and daring new techniques led to results unprecedented in naval history; among them, successful "down the throat" barrage against an attacking Japanese destroyer, voracious surface-running gun attacks, and the sinking of a four-ship convoy in one day.
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story is excellent...narrator...aarrgg
- By Rudy Ganther on 04-26-20
What listeners say about The Death of the USS Thresher
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- JustBill
- 03-31-20
I REMEMBER THESE HEROES
As a US Navy Machinist Mate, I thought I knew all I needed to know about the Thresher, but this book opened up my mind to much more, but before critiquing the book, I send out my condolences to the family members still alive, that still are alive and still feel that void in their hearts.
I could not believe the Navy had a depth test off the continental shelf itself, as I think it has no common sense behind it, and it's not good science or physics in this case. What's the difference if you stay on the shelf and find a spot that's 900 foot, rather than thousands of feet off the shelf, and on a shake down cruise? There is no rational reason to carry this out, and you owe the crew to have the bottom of the sea under them and at a depth under the crush depth of the boat. If the Navy is still sending boats boats at 900 to 1200 feet below sea level under normal operations, there is no wartime reason for that. Another matter that caught my attention was tying the sub to the pier at the stern and then going to full power, did someone ever think that you needed forward momentum to protect the wedges of the thrust bearing.
Hopefully they have quit going that deep right out of drydock, but these men did not have to die, as it is enough to know about the crush depth, but you don't have to go to the razors edge in testing a manned submarine. I think the cause was the WW11 mentally at that time, as I experienced that myself on occasion back then. One more thing that bothered me was I thought all our boats came out of Electric Boat in CT?
These boats are like Swiss watches, and you have the responsibility to get them built their alone. If you are an Engineer, it won't take long to find out that Admiral Rickenbacker was a self centered individual and narcissist and he was wrong more that correct in running the nuclear Navy in 50s and 60s.
He forgot at times that men made the boat, not a simple nuclear reactor. My goodness this book pissed me off, as this was no instant death, but experiencing terror, and sounds from hell, as this boat sank to its demise. I think it might only have been 15 seconds, but everyone on that boat knew they were going to die, and if they had the shelf below them, these men might have survived.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Ken Renicker Jr.
- 01-15-23
God Bless those Sailors
No doubt a sad story. However the technology and procedures that followed were needed.
Great narrator and the story moves quickly. Highly recommended.
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- Kindle Customer Papa TJ
- 01-03-19
loved it
very informative to me as a submariner who sailed on the sister ship SSN-621 USS Hafdock
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1 person found this helpful
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- artist b. lewis
- 08-04-22
Very Sad Story
The details of this tragedy almost brought me to tears. Tough sorry to hear.
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- Scott
- 08-24-22
“Electric board yard”?
Clearly the narrator did a terrible job reading. Decent book and good story but painful to listen to. Clearly the narrator knows little about the subject matter. Mispronounced a ton of boat names and called EB “Electric Board Yard”. Really takes away from the story. Buy the physical copy on this one.
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- Ronald Edwards
- 12-12-23
High level of detail
This was a fact-filled recounting of a tragedy of the greater tragedy of the Cold War.
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- Sandra
- 07-14-21
Excellent
Excellent book. Includes technical information without becoming overly complicated. Very well narrated. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys non-fiction.
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- Kindle Customer
- 03-18-23
Enjoyable and Comprehensive
A sad story told well, but could be updated after declassifications in 2021 showing that some crew may have survived the immediate accident.
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- Ken
- 09-12-19
Great History Book
There is nothing I did not like about this book. A great history book about a atomic Submarine that was lost.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Valorie Bowman
- 01-19-23
Excellent account
I was just a teenager when this event occurred. I was living in Groton, Connecticut at the time. The entire Navy Community grieved.
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