Bluejacket books

In 1972, following the huge success of Run Silent, Run Deep, Edward L. Beach's second novel of submarine warfare was published to great acclaim. Like its predecessor, Dust on the Sea was lauded for its authentic portrayal of what it meant to be a submariner during the desperate years of World War II. Tense, dramatic and rich in technical and tactical detail, the book draws on Beaach's experience as a submariner in the US Navy to describe the commander and crew of the fictitious USS Eel as they battle overwhelming odds to destroy Japanese ships and save American lives. With no margin for error, the men withstand storms, depth charges and even hand-to-hand combat to defend their boat and themselves. Mistakes, as the title reminds us, result in the debris which serves as a brief grave maker for sunken ships: dust on the sea.

"When the nuclear-powered submarine USS Triton was commissioned in November 1959, its commanding officer, Capt. Edward L. Beach, planned a lengthy but otherwise routine shakedown cruise in the North Atlantic. Two weeks before the scheduled cruise, however, Beach was summoned to Washington and told of the immediate necessity to prove the reliability of the Rickover-conceived submarine. His new secret orders were to take the Triton around the world, entirely submerged the whole time. When asked if his new ship could do this, he responded simply "Yes, sir!"" "Here is Captain Beach's firsthand account of the thirty-six-thousand-nautical-mile voyage whose records for speed and endurance still stand today. It brings to life the many tense events in the historic journey: the malfunction of the fathometer, an instrument essential to locating undersea mountains and shallow waters; the agonizing illness of a senior petty officer; and the serious problem that suddenly overtook the ship's main hydraulic oil system. But with the stress came frequent moments of humor and poignancy, which, as described by Beach, make readers feel as if they had been along on the ride of a lifetime."--Jacket.

For centuries, four nations along the northern rim of Africa then known as the Barbary Coast had been terrorizing merchant shippers, capturing and looting their vessels and imprisoning their crews for ransom. With a vital lifeline of the infant United States threatened by the Barbary pirates, President Thomas Jefferson faced one of the first major challenges to U.S. foreign policy: He could continue trading arms for hostages with the Barbary Coast rulers or he could meet force with force.

Story of the Philippine campaign as told by four officers of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3.

Hailed as heart stopping and almost unbearably suspenseful, Edward L. Beach's third novel is set fifteen years after the end of World War II as the US Navy converts its fleet of conventional submarines to nuclear-powered ships. The book focuses on the USS Cushing, whose sixteen missile silos carry more explosive power than all the munitions used in both world wars. The submarine is on a secret mission to the Arctic Ocean to determine whether her missiles are effective when fired from beneath the ice. When the Cushing is incapacitated with a suspicious Russian sub lurking in the vicinity, the scene is set for a dramatic novel rich in all the technical detail and submarine lore that have entertained millions of readers of Captain Beach's other fictional works.

Describes the life and times of the well-known naval hero of the American Revolution, John Paul Jones, who is called the father of the United States Navy.

This is the hilarious novel that all America is laughing with — the ribald and raucous adventures of a group of Navy public relations men who are sitting out the war on a fabulous Pacific Island. Now an Avon Production, presented by M-G-M, starring Glenn Ford, Gia Scala, Anne Francis and Keenan Wynn. "If a funnier, more enjoyable, more deeply satisfying, more literate topical satire . . . has been published in a long, long I time, this reviewer can't name it." — N.Y. Times Book Review

This is the story of the legendary German battleship that sunk the pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, on May 24, 1941, and three days later was hunted down and sunk by the British during one of the most dramatic pursuits in naval history. Told by a German naval officer who witnessed both sinkings, the book chronicles the brief but sensational career of what was thought to be the grandest weapon of the Third Reich. Burkard Baron von Müllenheim-Rechberg, the Bismarck's top-ranking survivor, tells the battleship's story from commissioning to the moment when the captain gave a final salute and went down with his ship. The epic battle between the two great enemy ships captured the imagination of an entire generation and became a popular subject for movies and songs. With the discovery a few years ago of the Bismarck's sunken hull off the coast of France, worldwide attention has focused again on the famous ship. Reprinted now in paperback for the first time, the work presents the human dimensions of the event without neglecting the technical side and includes information on rudder damage and repair, overall ship damage, and code breaking. The book also provides insights into the author's life as a prisoner of war in England and Canada and the friction that existed between the Nazis and non-Nazis Germans in the camps. Such a personal look at one of the most famous sea encounters in the history of World War II makes absorbing reading.