God, give me guidance in these trying times
 

Well folks, my package from Perseus Books finally arrived on Thursday. A brand new copy of Ed Offley's Scorpion Down, which is supposed to "blow the roof" off the whole Scorpion conspiracy.

Only 60 pages in, and Offley has already confused the Type XXI with the Walther Type XVIII, padded the narrative out with a pointless history of nuclear power, and gotten the registration numbers of several different ships wrong. Of course, his central thesis is that the Scorpion was sunk by a Soviet submarine, in this case, an Echo II, which was substantially slower and noiser than the Scorpion and wasn't designed to hunt other submarines. Never mind that the Scorpion's hull doesn't show any evidence of external damage.

Right from the introduction, he says that the torpedo hit on the port side of the control room (the "perfect place to inflict fatal damage"- as if the torpedo knew that!). Despite the fact that the boat now had a hole in it roughly the size of a media screen at a U2 concert, it still took 91 seconds for it to reach crush depth, which was apparently enough time for the maneuvering room to ring up Flank speed and for some of the crew to escape to the torpedo room, close the hatch, and prepare to escape. Never mind the fact that the bow is the only part of the Scorpion that hasn't suffered massive implosion damage, implying that the compartment was flooded when the hull was crushed. That would just get in the way of a good conspiracy theory, wouldn't it?

Of course, this whole mess is basically my fault, since I requested Neal to send a copy to me so I could review it. Yes, I'm that guy who writes most of the book reviews here. But I think I've finally found myself a copy of that elusive "stinker."

Frankly, if I'd have come across errors like that, I'd have turfed the thing across the room without even finishing it (unless of course I was reviewing it, in which case I'd have finished it, and then turfed it across the room!). I did that once with a WW2 novel about Luftwaffe fighter pilots, when on page three, the book's hero 'advanced the throttles' (two?) on his single-engined Messerschmitt bf 109:rotfl:

Nothing worse than a poorly-researched book, and it blows all credibility out of the window for any theory the author may be trying to postulate, but, many people will probably read it and not spot the errors, which is a shame. Doesn't mean of course that the thing wasn't sunk by a Soviet sub, just means that the author doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.

:D Chock

From that review of the first pages (I hate inaccuracies - probably why I don't watch the news anymore), I'd blow the guy off for not knowing anything, if it weren't for both an American and a Soviet Admiral hinting that it was actually sunk. That is the facts that I can't seem to let go of, which is why I think I might want to read it too.

-S

My sentiments exactly. One thing though, I have heard people refer to single engine aircraft and of advancing the throttle in that aircraft in a plural form. And this is on more than one occasion. Maybe you should give the guy one more chance? :D

Put your review on Amazon so others don't make the mistake.

Well, I've still got 300 more pages to go...:damn:

Oh, and one of the first things you see when you open the book is a quote from George Orwell's 1984. I think I'm going to officially institute Daryl's Law: Any reference to George Orwell, except when discussing his life, his books, movies based off his books, or perhaps Pink Floyd's Animals album, automatically renders the author's argument null and void.

Did you review that book about teh Golf that actually was sunk before it could nuke Peark Harbour?

I want to read that one for comedy value.

I'm just hoping Michael Bay doesn't read that one, or we could be in for a really hard time:rotfl:

:D Chock

Money is the root of all evil ...

If Russia took out one of ours, then they can blame all of their submarine problems on the good ole USA. :yep: