Williams, whose 30-year navy career began in 1927 and included submarine service, opens a modest but valuable history of early U.S. polar submarine operations with the trouble-plagued, pioneering 1931 voyage of Sir Hubert Wilkins' U.S. Navy^-surplus Nautilus. He discusses the little-known polar voyages by conventional submarines in the first decade after World War II before arriving at the famous nuclear-powered Nautilus, her famous first voyage to the North Pole, and the almost equally well known surfacing at that pole of the USS Skate. He also covers less famous voyages and the first under-ice maneuvers by Sargo and Seadragon. Williams' plain writing, based on thorough research that includes interviews with many now-departed navy participants, leaves one hoping only that the eventual declassification of Cold War documents will permit a similar study of submarine operations in the polar regions after 1962.