God, give me guidance in these trying times

Subnuts · 07-21-07, 10:27 AM

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."

07-21-07, 10:27 AM	#1
Subnuts The Old Man Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Connecticut Posts: 1,658 Downloads: 14 Uploads: 0	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."