Out of the Darkness and Into the Light, The Inanimate Expressions of HMS Glowworm H92

What is it like to die aboard a sinking submarine? There is no escape, only the inevitable death a few seconds away. Place yourself among the crew and technicians aboard the USS Thresher, SSN-593, a nuclear submarine who lost her life due to extraordinary circumstances and now lies, in pieces, silently at the bottom of the ocean, 8,400 feet below the surface and 8,400 feet below fresh air. Who gets to breathe the last bubble? Thresher was at sea, April 10, 1963, 220 miles east of Boston, Massachusetts, in order to perform a test dive, but everything went wrong, and she sank into the depths of the sea with her complement of men. The authors were greatly moved by this event and that of the loss of her fellow submarine, USS Scorpion, SSN-589, lost on June 5, 1968, taking 99 crew members with her. In order to dramatize the traumatic events experienced by these men and put these into the sequence of events in real time, was a difficult and emotional task for the authors but they felt it had to be done regardless. In order to honor these men, to acknowledge the character of the vessels and to provide a novel approach to the tragedies, this book was composed. It is dedicated to the crews of both ships. This is not an easy book to read, and it will pull at your emotions; it is designed to do so. This does not capitalize on the events and those involved in them; it is designed, as poetry is designed, to present a known event in another way, from a different perspective, in this case, that of the last bubble of air.