Dark Waters: An Insider's Account of the NR-1, the Cold War's Undercover Nuclear Sub

Written by Lee Vyborny and Don Davis

Narrated by Braden Wright

Operating alone and unarmed on the bottom of the sea, the U.S. Navy's smallest nuclear-powered submarine is one of its biggest weapons. Tied up at a pier, the boat with the bright orange sail looks absolutely minuscule, innocent and out of place beside its big brothers, the fleet's huge missile-carrying and attack submarines, but it can dive deeper, stay down for a month, and accomplish missions far beyond the capabilities of any of them. The ship has been cloaked in mystery. It wasn't commissioned or given a name, and even today it is hardly known beyond a select fraternity of sailors and scientists. They simply call it the NR-1.

The little submarine was born in controversy, served in secrecy, survived potential catastrophe on numerous occasions, and is still in operation almost forty years after being conceived. It was and remains the only one of its kind ever built.

The story of the NR-1 is told against the tense background of the Cold War and peopled with such rich characters as the acerbic Admiral Hyman Rickover, ocean scientist Robert Ballard (who found the Titanic), the designers and builders who faced almost impossible tasks to give life to the ship, the unique officers and sailors who took the little boat down into depths on covert missions, and the families who waited for them on shore, unaware that there would be no escape if the boat ran into trouble.

Dark Waters: An Insider's Account of the NR-1, the Cold War's Undercover Nuclear Sub is a thrill-a-minute book of submarine adventure, imminent danger, personal bravery, technological wonder and historic discovery. It will be a proud addition to the shelves of readers who love stories of the sea, history and intrigue.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Oct 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9781721343225

Lee Vyborny

Lee Vyborny was involved with the U.S. Navy submarine force for more than thirty years. He served aboard a fast attack submarine on patrols in the Pacific and was chosen as one of the original twelve crew members on the Submarine NR-1. He was an Instructor at the Navy’s Nuclear Power Training Unit in Windsor, CT. and a navy diver. He later became a design and production engineer at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics, and a program manager for the development and production of shipboard navigational equipment at Sperry Aerospace and Marine Systems. He was also the founder and president of Program Support Associates. A Consulting Engineering firm that developed and supported accounting software that tracks US Navy congressional appropriation funding. The firm had offices in Charlottesville and Arlington, Virginia, and in San Diego, California. He grew the company in size to 50 people with offices in those three cities before it was sold. Mr. Vyborny is now retired and living in the Caribbean.

Reviews for Dark Waters

[Samuel Gasster · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful story about an amazing boat and her incredible crews over the years. The crew performed fantastic work and added to our knowledge of the sea. I throughly enjoyed the book.

[Farhad Rajabi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In my past life I was a naval officer. This book completely intrigued me about the fantastic life of Navy. But the book the way it was written and narrated penetrated my innermost existence. I had about 15 hours of fascinating time with this book. Well written and well narrated is enjoyable for everybody who like challenge in his life. Highly recommend this book. Well Done...

[Tim Ryder · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great first person description of the challenges and risks faced by the men who built and operated this unique American naval asset.

[Mr Martin C Przybylski · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A well written and interesting piece of submarine naval history. Provides an insight into how the US Navy works and its interplay with the defense industry as well as a look into the life of a submariner.

[BE19Pilot · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent, and very informative. Learned a lot of things about the very little known NR-1 program.

[ecw0647 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

No one is quite sure when Admiral Rickover decided the Navy needed a small nuclear-powered submarine that could drive along the deepest depths of the ocean and be used for a variety of missions. The civilian world had been using deep-sea submersibles for some time, but it was not until the Thresher accident that everyone realized the need for a vessel that could remain underwater at the deepest depths for very long periods of time. It was developed and built under conditions of extreme secrecy and was never even designated a warship. It had a variety of bizarre features, including tires on the bottom of the hull that would literally permit it to drive along the bottom, and sideways thrusters fore and aft that allowed it to hover in one exact position.

Lee Vyborny was one of the original crew members on the tiny NR-1, a sub that contained a midget nuclear reactor, which developed a mere 130 horsepower, of which only 60 could be used for propulsion. The crew quarters were tiny, and there was no stateroom for the commander, who would usually sleep on the floor next to the control panel. The reactor was designed so it could be operated by one man because the crew never exceeded eight people, usually only four on duty at any given time.

In an uncharacteristic mistake, Rickover tried to keep the cost of development and building down and required that as many of the ship's components as possible be purchased off-the-shelf. He was under the mistaken impression that the commercial deep sea industry was well developed and the parts standardized. At the same time, he insisted on testing these parts under the most extreme conditions. They had never been designed for the role he intended, and the result was costly failures and time spent to develop alternatives. The early computer they used was a midget and capable of only fourteen simultaneous operations, in contrast to the original PC, which could do many thousands at once.

Rickover's presence was ubiquitous. Everyone was suitably cowed, but he knew the bureaucracy well and how to manipulate them. The story of the two dead mice is illustrative. A habitability team was due for an inspection. Their job was to verify that a new ship was liveable. The NR-1 had so many discomforts for the crew, Rickover knew he might be in trouble, so he sent out an aide to find two dead mice and to hide them in the boat. The habitability team was delighted to find a dead mouse, thinking they would be able to reprimand the famous admiral. Instead, they were the ones on the receiving end. He told them they had done a terrible job and didn't belong in the Navy. "I know there were two dead mice on that boat," he shouted, "I bought them! You only found one! Get out of here!"

When lambasted by the General Accounting Office for the NR-1's cost overruns and asked to explain the excess, Rickover replied with a sarcastic letter, reprinted in full in the book, suggesting their analysis was similar to a review of Lady Chatterly's Lover by Field and Stream magazine. The letter concluded, "A cursory review of the subject report leads me to conclude that its authors, likewise, lack comprehension in the manner of accomplishing research and development. Therefore, I believe no useful purpose would be served by detailed comments on my part."

In order to withstand the enormous pressures at depths to which the little sub was expected to go, the hull had to be perfectly round. The twelve-and-a-half-foot diameter hull could be out of round by no more than 1/16th of an inch. That required special manufacturing processes. The crew had to undergo special psychological tests to see whether they could stand being cooped up in tiny spaces for long periods. Submariners who had been successful at resisting the stresses of a regular submarine wound up in fistfights after just a few days when tested under the conditions expected on the NR-1.

The boat was expected to remain under water indefinitely, but practical considerations limited the length of the voyages: food and waste. The ship had no galley, so the crew subsisted on TV dinners purchased in large quantities and kept frozen until they were needed, and when the waste tank was full, they had to surface.

Ironically, the NR-1 has outlasted larger and more famous mega-submarines. According to the author, it continues to conduct classified missions in addition to being a valuable resource for many universities and research institutes for tamer exploratory searches of the ocean's depths.

[scuzzy_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love naval history and more and more I find myself drawn to the cloak and dagger carry-ons of submariners during The Cold War...and this book probably is as good a representation of the latter than any other I have read.But don;t expect cat and mouse chases under the Atlantic, Red October type thrust and counter thrust, not even world-on-the-brink-of anihlilation stuff. As far as subs go, this one is probably the most boring and yet most fascinating of all books I have read on the subject to date.While the romantic and tough-guy persona goes to those in attack-subs and the 'boomers' the nondescript NR-1, the smallest nuclear-powered sub ever made has had a life that other crews could only hope for and yet have nightmares about serving with. The sub was the brainchild of a controlling Admiral in the 60s, took 10 years to build, and at time of print (some 10 years ago) was still in service in close to its original form.Its crews have come as close to death as any before or since on one tour than most would in a career, and have recovered planes and missiles from depths well past that of the Titanic, and with nuclear-power, wheels, and the living space smaller than your average people-mover has achieved things of legend.And until this book came along, no one, even the navy, knew what it was. This is most understood when you read about the search and recovery of a Phoenix missile. To date still most of its expeditions are kept classified...A book that is very hard to put down and almost gives you claustrophobia it won't appeal to a lot, even war-mongering, fatigue-wearing, paintballing nutters, but well recommended by this fellow.