Lethal Tides: Mary Sears and the Marine Scientists Who Helped Win World War II

by Catherine Musemeche

Overview

"Magnificently researched, brilliantly written, Lethal Tides is immensely entertaining and reads like an action novel. Catherine Musemeche has brought to life the incredible work of the scientists and researchers who made such a remarkable contribution to America’s war effort in the Pacific theater during WWII.” —Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy, Ret.), #1 New York Times bestselling author of Make Your Bed and The Hero Code

Lethal Tides tells the story of the virtually unknown Mary Sears, “the first oceanographer of the Navy,” whose groundbreaking oceanographic research led the U.S. to victory in the Pacific theater during World War II. 

In Lethal Tides, Catherine Musemeche weaves together science, biography, and military history in the compelling story of an unsung woman who had a dramatic effect on the U.S. Navy’s success against Japan in WWII, creating an intelligence-gathering juggernaut based on the new science of oceanography. 

When World War II began, the U.S. Navy was unprepared to enact its island-hopping strategy to reach Japan. Anticipating tides, planning for coral reefs, and preparing for enemy fire was new ground for them, and with lives at stake it was ground that had to be covered quickly. Mary Sears, a marine biologist, was the untapped talent they turned to, and she along with a team of quirky marine scientists were instrumental in turning the tide of the war in the United States’ favor.

The Sears team analyzed ocean currents, made wave and tide predictions, identified zones of bioluminescence, mapped deep-water levels where submarines could hide and gathered information about the topography and surf conditions surrounding the Pacific islands and Japan. Sears was frequently called upon to make middle-of-the-night calculations for last-minute top-secret landing destinations and boldly predicted optimal landing times and locations for amphibious invasions.

In supplying these crucial details, Sears and her team played a major role in averting catastrophes that plagued earlier amphibious landings, like the disastrous Tarawa, and cleared a path to Okinawa, the last major battle of World War II.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062991690
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	08/23/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	164,203
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Catherine “Kate” Musemeche trained at one of the elite children’s hospitals in the country, Children’s Memorial Hospital of Northwestern University in Chicago and has been a pediatric surgeon for more than three decades. Musemeche also has an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico and a JD from the University of Texas School of Law. Musemeche’s first book, Small, was longlisted for the E.O. Wilson/Pen American Literary Science Award and was awarded the Texas Writer’s League Discovery Prize for Nonfiction in 2015. She has also contributed to the New York Times’ “Motherlode” blog, KevinMD.com and EMS World. She lives in Austin, Texas. 

Table of Contents

Map xi

Prologue 1

Part 1 A Nation at War in Two Oceans

Chapter 1 Chasing Plankton on the Eve of the War 5

Chapter 2 Choosing an Unlikely Path 20

Chapter 3 Finding a Mentor Fosters a Career 30

Chapter 4 Smoke Screens and Submarines 42

Chapter 5 Hydro Fights a War 57

Chapter 6 The War Beneath the Sea 77

Chapter 7 A Seat at the Table 85

Chapter 8 The Vast Pacific Ocean 96

Chapter 9 Oceanographers to the Rescue 110

Part 2 The Mission Begins

Chapter 10 Closing the Intelligence Gap 129

Chapter 11 Tarawa 147

Chapter 12 Reversing the Mandate 158

Chapter 13 The Oceanographic Unit Digs In 178

Chapter 14 Narrowing the Path to Victory 198

Chapter 15 Flying Blind in Iwo Jima 215

Chapter 16 Penetrating the Zone of Safety 225

Chapter 17 Closing in on Victory 239

Epilogue 249

Author's Note and Acknowledgments 259

Endnotes 263

Photo Insert Credits 293

Index 295

Editorial Reviews

05/30/2022

Oceanographer Mary Sears’s critical contributions to the U.S. Navy during WWII are detailed in this impressive and inspiring portrait. Pediatric surgeon Musemeche (Small) examines how Sears and other members of the women’s naval reserve, better known as WAVES, “developed critical intelligence for numerous amphibious missions, prepared manuals for general use by sailors and navigators, assisted in creating survival maps for air-sea rescue, and collated bathythermograph data for use in submarine warfare.” One of the first 10 researcher fellows at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, Sears became a leading authority on plankton despite not being allowed to sail aboard the institute’s research vessel (she relied on male colleagues to gather specimens for her). Brought into the U.S. Hydrographic Office in 1943, Sears worked alongside colleagues including oceanographic librarian Mary Grier, oceanographer Dora Henry, and marine biologist Fenner Chace Jr., to compile reports on surfs, reefs, tides, and waves for landings at Luzon, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and other Pacific theater hot spots. Musemeche peppers the narrative with details of the sexism Sears and others faced in the military and academia, and the ways in which the war effort upended life on the home front. The result is a rousing account of talent, intelligence, and commitment overcoming prejudice. Agent: Marcy Posner, Folio Literary. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Magnificently researched, brilliantly written, Lethal Tides is immensely entertaining and reads like an action novel. Catherine Musemeche has brought to life the incredible work of the scientists and researchers who made such a remarkable contribution to America’s war effort in the Pacific theater during WWII.” — Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy, Ret.), #1 New York Times bestselling author of Make Your Bed and The Hero Code

"[An] impressive and inspiring portrait....The result is a rousing account of talent, intelligence, and commitment overcoming prejudice." — Publishers Weekly

"Musemeche fully illuminates the critical yet rarely recognized work of ocean scientists during WWII. The science is compelling and artfully explained, while Musemeche's revelations about the sexism Sears dealt with is particularly stunning. Engaging, intriguing, and surprising, this is a title women's studies and history fans will love." — Booklist

"An engaging, thorough story about a worthwhile subject. This biography beautifully captures the energy, sacrifice, and commitment of military personnel working in the U.S. in the 1940s and makes clear the importance of their scientific contributions to the outcome of World War II." — Library Journal

“Lethal Tides reveals yet another hidden figure of science. In the 1930s, the remarkable Mary Sears made a career in oceanography despite being barred from research vessels because of her sex. During World War II, her knowledge helped turn the tide of war in the vast Pacific Ocean, where submarines lurked, torpedoes stalked, and amphibious landings presented a perilous challenge to a US Navy coping with unfamiliar tides and treacherous coral reefs. Under extraordinary pressure and the highest stakes imaginable, Sears, and the team of mostly women scientists she supervised, charted the way to safety. This full telling of her story is long overdue.” — Liza Mundy, New York Times bestselling author of Code Girls

“This compelling story of the US Navy's groundbreaking first female oceanographer and the team she assembled illuminates how they weaponized their understanding of maritime environments to save the lives of innumerable WWII sailors and Marines. Lethal Tides is dramatic proof of how the best amongst us can have a profound impact in the most unexpected ways.” — Richard Danzig, 71^st Secretary of the Navy

From the Publisher

"Magnificently researched, brilliantly written, Lethal Tides is immensely entertaining and reads like an action novel. Catherine Musemeche has brought to life the incredible work of the scientists and researchers who made such a remarkable contribution to America’s war effort in the Pacific theater during WWII.

Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy

06/01/2022

A fascinating book that will be received well by scholars and casual readers of history, marine science, military operations, and women's studies, Musemeche's work shares the story of Mary Sears, an oceanographer who joined the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergecy Service (WAVES) during World War II. She went on to lead a key 400-person scientific research department. Defying gender expectations of her time, Sears diligently guided her unit, providing key intelligence to naval strategists, significantly aiding in their efforts in the Pacific and Europe. The reports of the Naval Oceanographic Unit helped pilots and sailors navigate the oceans, streamlined shore landings, and enabled submarines to escape enemy detection. Plagued by sexism in her early career, Sears and her colleagues continued to face discrimination in the Navy, even as they provided essential knowledge and worked tirelessly on behalf of the military efforts. Other vibrant members of the team, including scientists and one expert librarian, are also profiled. VERDICT An engaging, thorough story about a worthwhile subject. This biography beautifully captures the energy, sacrifice, and commitment of military personnel working in the U.S. in the 1940s and makes clear the importance of their scientific contributions to the outcome of World War II.—Sarah Bartlett Schroeder

Library Journal

2022-05-11
In war, sometimes the most important weapons are information and expertise, as this biography of a remarkable woman demonstrates.

Musemeche, a veteran pediatric surgeon, recounts the career of Mary Sears (1905-1997), who advanced the science of oceanography while making critical contributions to the war effort. Originally a marine biologist specializing in plankton, after Pearl Harbor, she was sent to the Oceanographic Unit at the Hydrographic Office of the Navy. Though she was meant to be a “placeholder for a man” who had enlisted, her abilities soon became apparent. One of her first projects dealt with studying undersea temperatures, which were especially significant for submarines. As she gathered a (mostly female) team around her, the focus shifted to providing maps for amphibious assaults on Japanese-held islands. The near-disastrous landing on Tarawa had underlined the need for better intelligence, especially about hazards like tides, reefs, waves, and weather. Sometimes, information was available in archives and had to be painstakingly excavated. Ironically, Japanese fishing surveys often turned out to be useful, but otherwise, charts had to be developed from observations of a target. Musemeche notes that Sears had a talent for sifting through huge amounts of raw information to find the important parts. In an era when female scientists had to battle for credibility, the value of her work was quickly recognized, to the point that keeping up with the demand for data and information was a constant strain. There is no telling how many lives were saved due to her work, but Adm. Chester Nimitz, for one, said that the material from Sears’ unit was essential. No doubt the men on the front lines would have agreed. Musemeche tells the story with a sense of restraint that fits the subject, and she notes that a few years after Sears died, the Navy named a new oceanographic survey ship the USNS Mary Sears—a fitting tribute to someone who made a difference.

Overdue acknowledgment of an important figure in American military history.

Kirkus Reviews