On The Bottom

Back in December, I picked up a used book, “On the Bottom,” by Admiral Edward Ellsberg (he was still a Commander when he wrote it)/ as a part of my duties as the Base Commander for the Bremerton Base for SubVets, we conduct a monthly “Tolling of the Boats” ceremony for the submarines that were lost in a given month. I was doing the prep work for this Month and realized that the USS S-51 was lost in September, and I decided to pick the book up and finally read it.

I made it about a third of the way through. To say that it was a tough read is true, but not because of the technical details or dense material.

Thirty-three men died when USS S-51 went down on September 25, 1925, a few miles off Block Island Sound. Their story – as hard as it hit…