On the Bottom: The Tale of the Dangerous and Ground-Breaking Salvage of the Sunken S-51

By Edward Ellsberg

Book Overview

In a collision with a steamship, City of Rome, on the night of September 25, 1925, the U.S. Navy Submarine S-51 sank in 132 feet of water, taking 33 sailors to the ocean floor. This is the story of the men charged with doing the impossible--raising the thousand ton sub from the bottom of the sea. Added to this modern classic of true adventure are a foreword and afterword giving specifics of the accident and the aftermath, additional photographs, a publisher's preface, and appendices.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451211510
• ISBN13: 9780451211514
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

On the Bottom

Excellent account of how hat divers raised a submarine sunk in 132 feet of water in the North Atlantic. This book makes recreational SCUBA divers appreciate what a hard job this was, and how diving has evolved over the years

Ellsberg is an unrecognized icon of the US Navy

When I was a kid, browsing a used book sale at a mall in San Antonio, I bought a book named "Thirty Fathoms Deep" by Commander Edward Ellsberg. It was a pretty good yarn about diving on sunken treasure, not very plausible but a good read. I still have the book, and a few years ago (probably after reading "Run Silent, Run Deep") I started wondering who this Ellsberg guy was, especially as there were a bunch of other books by him printed on the flyleaf of "Thirty Fathoms Deep". Google to the rescue - I found a website containing the US Navy report on the raising of the S-51 (which seemed to be the "Columbia" incident of its day) in 1926, written by Ellsberg. Here was the source of technical themes repeated in "Thirty Fathoms Deep" and I read it thoroughly. In spite of the dry Navy language, it was a thrilling story, and then I read "On The Bottom". This book is more or less the same information found in the Navy report, of course, but with a more human touch. While still somewhat dry and full of technical details, the picture painted is one of men struggling to perform a herculean task in extreme conditions with primitive tools (some invented as they went along), against cruel setbacks seemingly thrown by a pantheon of laughing gods. This is truth on par with Spielbergian fiction and worth a movie, with no embellishment required.

On the Bottom

A fantastic reprint of one of the all time classics of the sea. The introduction by Captain Ned Beach is a wonderful tribute to Admiral Edward Ellsberg and the book includes a CD recording of the 1925 hit song "The Sinking of Submarine S-51," and a DVD of period newsreel footage. It's a must for any naval history buff!