Poseidon [electronic resource] : China's secret salvage of Britain's lost submarine / Steven R. Schwankert.

Issued as part of UPCC book collections on Project MUSE.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [209]-214) and index.

List of illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Note on measurements and Romanization -- Poseidon : "The sea king" (poem) -- Introduction -- Hallowed be thy name -- The men and the boat -- "This most absolutely forgotten of imperial outposts" -- Bad judgment in good visibility -- Escape -- Hews and ho -- "A damned lie" -- The Court of Enquiry and court-martial -- Aftermath and legacy -- A search begins -- London and Portsmouth -- More than just the World Cup -- London again -- The Rosetta Stone -- The salvage -- Finding the graves -- On eternal patrol -- Appendix. HMS Poseidon officers and crew -- Notes -- References -- Index.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Poseidon sank in collision with a Chinese freighter during routine exercises in 1931 off Weihaiwei. Thirty of its fifty-six-man crew scrambled out of the hatches as it went down. Of the twenty-six who remained inside, eight attempted to surface using "Davis gear," an early form of diving equipment: six of them made it safely to the surface in the first escape of this kind in submarine history and became heroes. The incident was then forgotten, eclipsed by the greater drama that followed in World War II, until news emerged that, for obscure reasons, the Chinese government had salvaged the wrecked submarine in 1972. This lively account of the Poseidon incident tells the story of the accident and its aftermath, and of the author's own quest to find out about the 1972 salvage.

Description based on print version record.