Stretching from the years immediately after World War II to the spy operations of the Clinton administration, the authors present extraordinary revelations about undersea conflict between the US and British submarines and the Soviet fleet in an unseen intelligence war. The authors reveal stories of adventure, ingenuity, courage and disaster beneath the sea. They show how the American Navy sent submarines wired with self-destruct charges into the heart of Soviet seas to tap crucial underwater telephone cables. They unveil evidence that the Navy’s own negligence might have been responsible for the loss of the USS Scorpion, a submarine that disappeared, all hands lost, in the 1970s. They disclose details of the bitter war between the CIA and the Navy and how it threatened to sabotage one of America’s most important undersea missions. The tell the story of the audacious attempt to steal a Soviet submarine with the help of eccentric billionnaire Howard Hughes, and how it was doomed from the start. The authors also reveal how the Navy used the comforting notion of deep-sea rescue vehicles to hide operations that were more James Bond than Jacques Cousteau.