Book Review: Blind Man's Bluff

To begin the journey of underwater espionage, we first opened to a story of a USS Seawolf sub that was once a highly respectable submarine, but has been replaced by a newer nuclear powered sub. Now the Seawolf is forced to play cat and mice game with Russia to test their Sonar systems. Diesel powered submarine engines are the earliest stages of underwater watercraft before it was transformed into nuclear powered boats.

USS Seawolf

Anyway, the story begins with the submarine Cochino. It's a diesel powered submarine which is also one of the first boats to operate underwater while using a sonar for eavesdropping purposes. Well, that obviously gone wrong and Cochino blew up and a lot of people were killed. So there was that deadly beginning.

Well, as technology flourish, instead of having to snorkel to get fresh air, submarines can now remain under water indefinitely due to the invention of nuclear powered engines. This allowed US Navy to spy on their rivals more effectively. The reason US was desperate to create an effective espionage machine is because during that period, Russia and Cuba were trading military weapons and natural resources, which also enforced a socialistic ideal in Cuba. Since Russia was United States' rival, Cuba being Russia's ally clearly imposed a threat. Therefore, in order to prevent any unwelcomed attacks, US began the long road of underwater espionage.

So it goes..

The book spoke a lot about Submarines, from old Boats to new designs. It also spoke of the USS Scorpion, how on one of its trial run, it never made it back to base. Well, here comes John Craven. With his crazy intuition style probability method of tracking down watercraft, he freakin' found USS Scorpion! Who would've thought! Well, the book goes on for about 100 pages going over the process of finding good ol' Scorpion. They found out that it was a torpedo that jettisoned within the torpedo room (because of a defective electrical ignition device) that cost the lives of over 80 men.

Then the book goes into the real spying technology.. tapping phone and cable lines in Russian territory, invention of robotic sweepers to sweep up any russian military scraps, and also high pressure cameras that allow images to be captured under the deep sea. There aren't any real conflict that happened throughout the book, but it really engages the reader by keeping them on their toes because you never know what will happen next. It is a very powerful and educational novel about the history of underwater defense and the numerous lives that were lost in order to keep America safe.

I enjoyed reading this book and applaud the bravery of the men who tread the deep sea to shadow Russian submarines and who participated in other dangerous missions in order to provide valuable information for our nation in preparation of war and defense.