When Lieutenant Lawrence Miller first sees U.S.S. Bacalao the submarine is little more than a pile of curved steel plates stacked up alongside the builder’s ways. Over the next few months Miller watches the boat take shape and the crew gather from throughout the fleet.

By late 1941, Bacalao is in commission and attached to the  Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Then, on a Sunday morning, everything changes as the Japanese sneak attack plunges the United States into World War II. The new submarine and her untried crew are immediately thrown into action against the Japanese.

And Miller is there through it all, from the disastrous first patrol, when the boat is nearly lost and a pair of surprising heroes emerge, to the deployment to Australia, where a chance encounter ashore will change his life forever. Then, after a year in command of an ancient S-boat in the frigid hell of the Aleutians, Miller returns to Bacalao as her last wartime commander.

Written in a simple, straightforward style, and with careful attention to historic and technical detail, Bacalao is destined to become an instant classic of submarine fiction.