Descent into Darkness
Pearl Harbor, 1941, A Navy Diver's Memoir
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Descent into Darkness
Narrated by:
Peter Johnson
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Narrated by:
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Peter Johnson
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By:
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Edward C. Raymer
About this listen
On December 7, 1941, as the great battleships Arizona, Oklahoma, and Utah lie paralyzed and burning in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. A crack team of U.S. Navy salvage divers headed by Edward C. Raymer are hurriedly flown to Oahu from the mainland. Their two-part orders are direct and straightforward: (1) rescue as many trapped sailors and Marines as possible, and (2) resurrect what remains of America's once mighty pacific fleet. Descent Into Darkness tells their story.
©1996 Edward C. Raymer (P)2013 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
The aftermath of Pearl Harbor and the salvage efforts have long been forgotten about and so I was delighted to stumble across this book as a result of a YouTube video comment.
Descent into Darkness charts the efforts of a small group of divers to refloat the various wrecks, including the USS Utah, USS California, The USS Nevada, USS West Virginia, USS Oklahoma and the USS Arizona. To those, like me, who wondered what these salvage efforts must've been like, the horrors of trapped bodies they would've encountered ... all these things are described in this excellent book. Perhaps one of the saddest tragedies of all, and a truly terrible and unspeakably terrifying way to die, was those of three trapped men aboard the West Virginia who lingered in a dry compartment for something like two weeks.
The work required to raise these huge wrecks was truly remarkable and none of which would be possible without the brave services of the dive team that helped it happen.
The chilling prologue alone will paint the sort of horrific picture these divers had to face as the author described entering the USS Arizona some five weeks after its sinking. These men exhibited incredible courage in the face of death all around them as well as the very real inherent dangers to themselves of such endeavours.
The story also takes us beyond Pearl harbour and out into the Pacific war at large as the author ventures out to put his salvage and diving skills to good use. What this section goes to show, is how historians often get things wrong, as the author puts right some of the inaccuracies regarding his time aboard the Seminole.
The only very minor omission I felt here, was my lack of understanding of the technical issues that led to the death of a diver. He drowned in his suit, but readers unfamiliar with the type of diving suits used would not understand why this occurred, only that it did. The diving rig used was described right at the start of the book, so perhaps I missed a key detail, but it's workings, limitations and vulnerabilities weren't so clearly explained.
I would like to recommend a companion book, one I reed a few years back, called Trapped at Pearl Harbor
Escape from the Battleship Oklahoma
By: Stephen Bower Young which details the harrowing events while trapped inside the capsized USS Oklahoma.
Descent into Darkness is a fascinating book and anyone with a remote interest in the events of December 7th, 1941, or those into diving in general, should have.
Forgotten Courage
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Raising wrecks, against the odds
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I say this with the huge respect warranted to someone who has been through the author’s military career - it’s just not very interesting. The author’s monotonous American drawl doesn’t help.
Sorry but really disappointed.
Not a diving story
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Robotic narration
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