
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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All Hands Down
- The True Story of the Soviet Attack on the USS Scorpion
- By: Kenneth Sewell, Jerome Preisler
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Forty years ago, in May 1968, the submarine USS Scorpion sank in mysterious circumstances with a loss of 99 lives. The tragedy occurred during the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
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All Hands Down
- By Stephen on 12-19-08
By: Kenneth Sewell, and others
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Final Harbor
- Silent War Series, Book 1
- By: Harry Homewood
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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She was a monster, sleek and gleaming, designed to strike without warning like the dreaded shark. She was the USS Mako, as fearless and bold as any submarine that ever prowled the blue Pacific. Her mission: seek out and destroy the hitherto invincible ships of the Japanese Imperial Navy - and revenge the earlier defeats of a long and dirty war. Here is the story of the men who pitted their lives against impossible odds in the most dangerous branch of the American armed services.
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Loved it. Both times I listened
- By Father of 3 on 06-13-17
By: Harry Homewood
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Bloody Sixteen
- The USS Oriskany and Air Wing 16 During the Vietnam War
- By: Peter Fey
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Strategy and reality collide in Peter Fey's gripping history of aircraft carrier USS Oriskany's three deployments to Vietnam with Carrier Air Wing 16 (CVW-16). Its tours coincided with the most dangerous phases of Operation Rolling Thunder, the ill-fated bombing campaign against North Vietnam, and accounted for a quarter of all the naval aircraft lost during Rolling Thunder. The Johnson administration's policy of gradually applied force meant that Oriskany arrived on station just as previous restrictions were lifted and bombing raids increased.
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Great Listen!
- By MeathookWX on 09-21-18
By: Peter Fey
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Red November
- Inside the Secret U.S.-Soviet Submarine War
- By: W. Craig Reed
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Red November is filled with hair-raising, behind-the-scenes stories that take you deep beneath the surface and into the action of the Cold War. Few know how close the world has come to annihilation better than the warriors who served America during the tense, 45-year struggle known as the Cold War. Yet for decades, their work has remained shrouded in secrecy.
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Blind Man's Bluff meets Cuban Missile Crisis
- By SeaDuck on 08-10-10
By: W. Craig Reed
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The Burning Blue
- The Untold Story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA's Challenger Disaster
- By: Kevin Cook
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 28, 1986, NASA's space shuttle Challenger exploded after blasting off from Cape Canaveral. Christa McAuliffe, America's "Teacher in Space", was instantly killed, along with the other six members of the mission. At least that's what most of us remember. Kevin Cook tells us what really happened on that ill-fated, unforgettable day. He traces the pressures - leading from NASA to the White House - that triggered the fatal order to launch on an ice-cold Florida morning.
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Not bad, but not much new either
- By Dave on 07-27-22
By: Kevin Cook
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Bringing Columbia Home
- The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew
- By: Michael D. Leinbach, Jonathan H. Ward, Robert Crippen - foreward, and others
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Danny Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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On February 1, 2003, Columbia disintegrated on reentry before the nation's eyes, and all seven astronauts aboard were lost. Author Mike Leinbach was a key leader in the search and recovery effort as NASA, FEMA, the FBI, the US Forest Service, and dozens more federal, state, and local agencies combed an area of rural east Texas the size of Rhode Island for every piece of the shuttle and her crew they could find. Assisted by hundreds of volunteers, it would become the largest ground search operation in US history.
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Consider What You’re Looking For
- By Jeff Scott on 05-11-18
By: Michael D. Leinbach, and others
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Steel Boat Iron Hearts
- A U-boat Crewman's Life Aboard U-505
- By: Hans Goebeler, John Vanzo
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Using his own experiences, log books, and correspondence with other U-boat crewmen, Hans Goebeler offers rich and personal details about what life was like in the German Navy under Hitler. Since his first and last posting was to U-505, Goebeler's perspective of the crew, commanders, and war patrols paints a vivid and complete portrait unlike any other to come out of the Kriegsmarine. He witnessed it all, from deadly sabotage efforts that almost sunk the boat to the tragic suicide of the only U-boat commander who took his life during World War II.
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Not impressed with the narration
- By Andrew on 08-20-16
By: Hans Goebeler, and others
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Thunder Below!
- The USS Barb Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II
- By: Eugene B. Fluckey
- Narrated by: Corey Snow
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Under the leadership of her fearless skipper, Captain Gene Fluckey, the Barb sank the greatest tonnage of any American sub in World War II. At the same time, the Barb did far more than merely sink ships-she changed forever the way submarines stalk and kill their prey.
This is a gripping adventure chock-full of "you-are-there" moments. Fluckey has drawn on logs, reports, letters, interviews, and a recently discovered illegal diary kept by one of his torpedomen.
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Action, Excitement, & History. A great read!
- By Boone on 09-28-13
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The Silent Service in World War II
- The Story of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force in the Words of the Men Who Lived It
- By: Edward Monroe-Jones, Michael Green
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins, Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US Navy had a total of 111 submarines. It was mostly a collection of aging boats. Fortunately, with the war in Europe was already two years old and friction with Japan ever increasing, help from what would become known as the Silent Service in the Pacific was on the way: there were 73 of the new fleet submarines under construction. The Silent Service in World War II tells the story of America's intrepid underwater warriors in the words of the men who lived the war in the Pacific against Japan.
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Disappointing
- By Chris on 09-17-18
By: Edward Monroe-Jones, and others
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The Titanic: Disaster of the Century
- By: Wyn Craig Wade
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on the sensational evidence of the U.S. Senate hearings, eyewitness accounts, and the results of the 1985 Woods Hole expedition that photographed the ship, this electrifying account vividly re-creates the Titanic's last desperate hours afloat and fully addresses the questions that have continued to haunt the the world’s most famous marine disaster.
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The disaster and the disaster hearings
- By Tad Davis on 02-21-12
By: Wyn Craig Wade
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Disaster!
- A History of Earthquakes, Floods, Plagues, and Other Catastrophes
- By: John Withington
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 17 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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A comprehensive catalog of the most devastating and deadly events-natural or man-made-in human history. If you follow the news it can seem like injury, sickness, and death are now constant, inescapable occurrences that threaten us every second of every day. But such catastrophic events - as terrible and frightening as they are - have been happening for as long as mankind has walked the Earth.... and even before. From ancient volcanoes and floods to epidemics of cholera and smallpox to Hitler's mass killings in the 20th century, humanity's continued existence has always seemed perilous.
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Fantastic account of disasters!
- By Gardenstate Reader on 12-30-19
By: John Withington
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.
I REMEMBER THESE HEROES
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Great narrator and the story moves quickly. Highly recommended.
God Bless those Sailors
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loved it
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Very Sad Story
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“Electric board yard”?
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High level of detail
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Excellent
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Enjoyable and Comprehensive
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Sidenote/spoiler: In discussing the new DSRV service, I was surprised that the nuclear-powered DSRV NR-1 and her support vessel, The Carolyn Chouest, were not mentioned. The NR-1 ended up assisting in the salvage of The Challenger, and finding The Titanic.
Riveting account with no fluff.
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Excellent
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