The Terrible Hours; The Man Behind the Greatest Submarine Rescue in History

New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999. First Edition. Seventh Printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. [10], 259, [3] pages. Small tear in rear DJ. Peter Maas (June 27, 1929 - August 23, 2001) was an American journalist and author. He was born in New York City and attended Duke University. Maas had Dutch and Irish heritage. He was the biographer of Frank Serpico, a New York City Police officer who testified against police corruption.[1] He is also the author of the number one New York Times bestseller, Underboss, about the life and times of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano. His other notable bestsellers include The Terrible Hours, The Valachi Papers, Manhunt, and In a Child's Name, recipient of the 1991 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime book. The Valachi Papers, which told the story of Mafia turncoat Joseph Valachi, is widely considered to be a seminal work, as it spawned an entire genre of books written by or about former Mafiosi. Charles Bowers Momsen, nicknamed "Swede", was an American pioneer in submarine rescue for the United States Navy, and he invented the underwater escape device later called the "Momsen lung", for which he received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal in 1929. An account of Navy officer Charles "Swede" Momsen's mission to save the Squalus. On the eve of World War II, the Squalus, America's newest submarine, plunged into the North Atlantic. Miraculously, thirty-three crew members still survived. While their loved ones waited in unbearable tension on shore, their ultimate fate would depend upon one man, U.S. Navy officer Charles "Swede" Momsen -- an extraordinary combination of visionary, scientist, and man of action. In this thrilling true narrative, prize-winning author Peter Maas brings us in the vivid detail a moment-by-moment account of the disaster and the man at its center. Could he actually pluck those men from a watery grave? Or had all his pioneering work been in vain?