Subject: The Queenfish's Arctic patrol (new Book) Part 1
Queenfish: A Cold War Tale <script type="text/JavaScript" language="JavaScript">function getSharePasskey() { return 'ex=1363579200&en=799941b1bd9e4bd6&ei=5124';}<script type="text/JavaScript" language="JavaScript">function getShareURL() { return encodeURIComponent('http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/science/18arctic.html');}function getShareHeadline() { return encodeURIComponent('Queenfish: A Cold War Tale');}function getShareDescription() { return encodeURIComponent('The icy surface of the Arctic Ocean may seem peaceful, but below the ice, its depths have boiled with intrigue.');}function getShareKeywords() { return encodeURIComponent('United States Armament and Defense,Submarines,Ice,Oceans,Missiles and Missile Defense Systems');}function getShareSection() { return encodeURIComponent('science');}function getShareSectionDisplay() { return encodeURIComponent('Science');}function getShareSubSection() { return encodeURIComponent('');}function getShareByline() { return encodeURIComponent('By WILLIAM J. BROAD');}function getSharePubdate() { return encodeURIComponent('March 18, 2008');}Published: March 18, 2008 Atop the globe, the icy surface of theArctic Ocean has remained relatively peaceful. But its depths haveboiled with intrigue, no more so than in the cold war. Although the superpowersplanned to turn those depths into an inferno of exploding torpedoes andrising missiles, the brotherhood of submariners — the silent service,both Russian and American — has worked hard over the decades to keepthe particulars of those plans hush-hush. Now, a few secretsare spilling through a crack in the wall of silence, revealing some ofthe science and spying that went into the doomsday preparations. Anew book, “Unknown Waters,” recounts the 1970 voyage of a submarine,the Queenfish, on a pioneering dive beneath the ice pack to map theSiberian continental shelf. The United States did so as part of aclandestine effort to prepare for Arctic submarine operations and towin any military showdown with the Soviet Union. In greatsecrecy, moving as quietly as possible below treacherous ice, theQueenfish, under the command of Captain Alfred S. McLaren, mappedthousands of miles of previously uncharted seabed in search of safesubmarine routes. It often had to maneuver between shallow bottoms andice keels extending down from the surface more than 100 feet,threatening the sub and the crew of 117 men with ruin. Anotherdanger was that the sub might simply be frozen in place with no way outand no way to call for help as food and other supplies dwindled. TheQueenfish at one point became stuck in a dead end. The rescue took anhour and tense backtracking out of what had threatened to become an icytomb. “I still dream about it every other week,” Dr. McLaren, 75, the book’s author, recalled in an interview. “It was hairy.” The University of Alabama Press is publishing his recollections of the secret voyage. SylviaA. Earle, an oceanographer and the former chief scientist of theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said such feats inperilous waters made Dr. McLaren a genuine hero. “The sub could havedisappeared, and nobody would have known anything about it,” she said.“But they came through. That’s exploration at its most exquisite.” AfterDr. McLaren’s mission, the Arctic became a theater of militaryoperations in which the Soviets tried to hide their missile-carryingsubs under the fringes of the ice pack while American attack subs triedrelentlessly to track them. The goal was to destroy the Soviet subs ifthe cold war turned hot, doing so quickly enough to keep them fromlaunching their missiles and nuclear warheads at the United States. NormanPolmar, an author and analyst on Navy operations, called the polarenvironment “very very difficult” for subs. He said ice dangling fromthe surface in endless shapes and sizes made the sub’s main eyes —sonar beams that bounce sound off the bottom and surrounding objects —work poorly. Mr. Polmar added that the submarine communitynonetheless considered the Arctic “a big deal,” because it had a nearmonopoly on operations there. Dr. McLaren commanded one of the Navy’s most advanced warships, a jet-black monster the length of a football field. Itwas the first of a large class of submarines specially designed foryear-round operations in polar regions. As such, it boasted an array ofspecial acoustic gear meant to help it visualize the complex worldbeneath the pack ice. For instance, the sub had a specialsensor to detect icebergs jutting downward with threatening spikes.From bow to stern, it had a total of seven acoustic sensors pointingupward to help the crew judge the thickness of ice overhead. AsDr. McLaren recounts in “Unknown Waters,” the Queenfish, in preparationfor its Arctic voyage, was stripped of all identifying marks and pickedup a full load of torpedoes. It arrived at the North Pole onAug. 5, 1970, rising through open water. On the ice, an impromptu SantaClaus in a red suit frolicked with crew members. The submarine then sailed for the Siberian continental shelf, where it began its mission of secret reconnaissance. | 
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The Queenfish's Arctic patrol (new Book) Part 1
