Silent and Unseen: On Patrol in Three Cold War Attack Submarines by Alfred Scott McLaren (review)

Silent and Unseen is a memoir of life aboard U.S. submarines in the early Cold War. Captain Alfred S. McLaren, a retired U.S. Navy officer, offers this survey as something of a prequel to his first book, Unknown Waters, which describes the exploration of the Siberian continental shelf when he was in command of USS Queenfish (SSN 651). However, the approach of the two books is very different. Silent and Unseen is more in the tradition of other autobiographies about Cold War submarining, such as Dan Conley’s Cold War Command, which are becoming available as classification deadlines have expired. Rather than focusing on the missions undertaken, McLaren uses those missions to provide deeper insight into the men who served on the submarines and the unique but sometimes deadly nature of submarine life.

Recounting McLaren’s experiences on three Cold War submarines over the years 1958–1965, Silent and Unseen is divided into sections on USS Greenfish (SS 351), USS Seadragon (SSN 584), and USS Skipjack (SSN 585). The book covers an important historical period during which diesel-electric submarines, especially those modified with the Greater Underwater Propulsion Power (GUPPY) system, still carried the greatest share of the burden. However, this period was also the dawn of nuclear-powered submarines, destined to carry the Cold War to the Soviet Union throughout the 1970s and 1980s. McLaren amply demonstrates that, regardless of the means of propulsion, life in submarines during the Cold War was both demanding and rewarding, as too few boats were called on for near-constant intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance missions at sea against the growing naval might of the Soviet Union.

As the Cold War evolved, the nuclear attack submarines in particular were required to develop new tactical procedures and weapons doctrine. The U.S. submariners learned how best to employ their boats against the Soviet submarine fleet even as the requirement to remain undetected by that same fleet became an imperative. Some of the book’s best moments are in describing the transition of old submarine procedures and the advent of new ones, as when McLaren recounts the development of new passive-only sonar tracking techniques made possible by the greater submerged speed of the nuclear boats. Many of these techniques, developed either of necessity or discovered haphazardly, remain standard in the fleet today. However, a note of caution is in order for the reader interested in the operational details of clandestine submarine missions during the Cold War. Aside from discussions about submarine-on-submarine tactics, McLaren is careful to steer clear of the locations and actual targets of the various Cold War patrols he describes. Still, an informed reader will understand the context.

Additionally, Silent and Unseen is notable for McLaren’s attention to detail about how a submarine works. To the reader who has not served on submarines, McLaren’s in-depth discussion of the importance of the main battery to the survival of the submarine may seem overdone, but in fact the coverage is justified. A battery fire is apt to be catastrophic on a submarine, and such fires were almost the death of more than one boat. For that reason the submarine officer’s first qualification, as Battery Charging Line-up Officer, remains a rite of passage even on nuclear-powered submarines to this day. On a more somber note, McLaren’s brief recounting of the tragic loss of USS Thresher (SSN 593), including everyone onboard, is all the more poignant for his ability to home in on the details of submarine construction, interspersed with recollections of his interactions with some of the men who were lost.

For those interested in Arctic exploration, Silent and Unseen provides an extensive discussion of USS Seadragon’s exploration of Baffin Bay on the Arctic ice cap and the first submerged transit of the Northwest Passage. During...