In the extensive literature about the Battle of Midway, the role of American submarines has not received adequate attention. In The Search for the Japanese Fleet: USS Nautilus and the Battle of Midway, David W. Jourdan, one of the world's experts in undersea exploration, has reconstructed the critical part subs played in the action that many chroniclers of World War II consider to be the turning point of the war in the Pacific. In the direct line of fire was one of the oldest submarines in the navy, USS Nautilus. On their first war patrol, Lieutenant Commander William Brockman and his ninety-three-man crew wondered what would war be like, and as events unfolded, their actions during an eight-hour period early in that voyage would rank among the most important contributions of a submarine to the most decisive engagement in U.S. Navy history. Fifty-seven years later, Jourdan's team of deep sea explorers set out to discover the history of the famous Battle of Midway and find the ships the allied fleet sank. Key to the mystery was the Nautilus and her underwater exploits. Relying on logs, diaries, chronologies, manuals, sound recordings, and interviews with veterans of the battle, including men who spent most of the day of June 4th in the submarine conning tower, the story breathes new life into the history of the epic engagement. Woven into the tale of World War II is the modern drama of deep sea discovery as explorers deploy technological marvels to the seafloor, over three miles down, to reveal the relics of history and commemorate fallen heroes.

World War II gave rise to tales of epic battles, sagas of heroism, bravery, and cowardice. The sinking of Japanese submarine I-52 is one such tale. Author David W. Jourdan recovers this sunken history and explores how Allied codebreaking, the victory over the Axis's desperate mission for much-needed resources, and a modern-day treasure hunt contributed to the contemporary understanding of resource manipulation, air-sea-undersea warfare, and Japanese technology during World War II. In the final year of the war, Germany and Japan were increasingly starved of resources that they needed to continue the conflict. Because of this, the sinking of the Japanese cargo-carrying submarine I-52 played a crucial role in the tipping of Allied-Axis power. The submarine was conducting the last mission of a desperate program called Yanagi, aiming to transport vital war supplies, technology, and human expertise between the Axis confederates, before it was caught and destroyed in a combined air, sea, and undersea battle. Its mission, cargo, and movements were known to the Allies by codebreaking efforts, and its sinking denied Germany sorely needed rubber, metals, chemicals, medicines, industrial designs, weapons technology, and know-how. Incidental to the hundreds of tons of military supplies was a shipment of gold. The subsequent interest of modern-day treasure hunters has given ocean explorers, like Jourdan, the chance to uncover the details of such a unique historical event. The research that was stimulated by this effort led to the discovery of one-of-a-kind recordings of American Avenger torpedo bomber attacks on an enemy submarine. One of the first joint American-Russian research expeditions, the search for the wreck of I-52 and its discovery on the seafloor, nearly intact over three miles deep, accompany the historical account of the submarine with a tale of teamwork, detective work, and mariners' battle with the sea.

SS-168-the USS Nautilus--was the flagship of Submarine Division 12 operating out of Pearl Harbor throughout World War II. It was commissioned July 1, 1930, before international naval treaties limited future submarine size, and thus was among the largest submarines in the U.S. fleet. Over a football field in length and displacing 4,000 tons submerged, the boat was able to carry a large crew, ample cargo, two dozen torpedoes, cruiser-sized six-inch caliber guns, and cruise as far as 25,000 miles. She could dive to three hundred feet - though her crew was known to take her deeper. Throughout 1942-45 the Nautilus engaged the enemy in fourteen different patrols, from the Battle of Midway to the liberation of the Philippines, earning fourteen battle stars. Her skipper, William H. Brockman, Jr., received not one but three Navy Crosses for heroism, the first for fighting through 42 depth charges at Midway. Nautilus did everything a submarine can do and was involved in most of the major actions of the Pacific theater. In Last Man Down, historical events documented in deck logs and patrol reports are told through the voices of the men who lived them.

This unique historical and genealogical resource draws on the extraordinarily intact legislative, judicial, religious, and personal records of members of the first Maryland legislature. The two-volume set contains profiles of nearly fifteen hundred men who served in the state's legislature in the first 150 years after Maryland's founding.The major public and private aspects of each legislator's career are quickly discernible: family background, marriage, children, social status, religious affiliation, occupation, other offices held, and military service. Many entries include a brief summary of a legislator's stance on public and private issues. A final category, wealth at death, inventories the legislator's estate and notes any significant changes in wealth between first election and death.