In this engaging personal memoir, Admiral I. J. Galantin tells the story of the amazing evolution of the submarine, from its earliest days in the American Revolution to today's post-cold war nuclear subs. From 1929, his plebe year at Annapolis, until 1970, when he retired, Galantin saw the U.S. Navy change from a moribund floating bureaucracy to the best fighting machine ever to sail the high seas.

In waters from Japan to the Philippines, Galantin skippered his boat Halibut, barely escaping countless Japanese depth charges, and mines. For his wartime valor, the young officer collected the Navy Cross, three Silver Stars; and the Navy Unit Commendation, surviving to serve in the peacetime Navy.

It was there that Galantin learned that opponents could be every bit as dangerous, yet impossible to find on a radar screen. The maze of Pentagon corridors hid seasoned warriors fighting over slashed budgets and building bureaucratic baronies.

Galantin's story of his forty-one years before the mast is filled with adventure - the first passage under the North Pole - and heartbreak - the disappearance of Thresher with all hands. Throughout Galantin tells his personal story with a "you-are-there" immediacy. And, in his Epilogue, he advises how we can improve still further the greatest Navy the world has ever known.