Posted on 12/01/2002 4:35:07 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Edward Beach, Wrote 'Run Silent, Run Deep,' Dead at 84 By Ron Kampeas Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Edward Latimer "Ned" Beach, the U.S. Navy captain whose 1960 record for circumnavigating the globe in a submarine still stands and who wrote the best-selling undersea thriller "Run Silent, Run Deep," has died. He was 84. Beach, who was suffering from cancer, died at his Washington D.C. home early Sunday, said Edward Beach III, his son.
Beach was born in New York City in 1918 to a Naval officer, a captain who had served in actions in the Philippines and the Caribbean.
His father tried to dissuade him from the rigors of Navy career, but he persisted and graduated second in his class at the Naval academy in 1939.
He earned 10 decorations for gallantry in World War II, including the Navy Cross, won for his role in sinking Japanese ships in shallow waters just miles from the enemy coast.
He later recalled saying goodbye to the crew of the USS Trigger in May 1944, where he had served as second-in-command, when he was being transferred to another submarine.
"What I didn't realize was that we were splitting - those who were going to live from those who were going to die," he said. The Japanese sunk the Trigger in March 1945 and all aboard died.
The drama of the cramped quarters of a submarine at war was the basis for his best-selling 1955 novel, "Run Silent, Run Deep," about a clash between a revenge-obsessed captain and his crew. He wrote it while working as Naval aide to President Eisenhower.
Asked once how he had time to write the book, he said: "Instead of playing golf or going to a lot of parties, I would come home after hours at the White House, sit in my living room with a clipboard and write." His father also wrote novels while in active service as a naval officer.
The novel was made into a popular 1958 movie starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, but Beach didn't like its melodrama. "It's not true to the Navy that I saw and tried to describe," he told All Hands, a Navy periodical, in 1999. He wrote 11 other books.
In 1960, he commanded the USS Triton, a nuclear-powered submarine that circumnavigated the globe in 84 days - a record that still stands. His account of the voyage, "Around the World Submerged," was published in 1962. He said it had been tougher to endure a 24-hour depth-charging at the hands of the Japanese.
He retired in 1966, and turned his pen to sometimes sharp critiques of his former employer.
In his 1995 book, "Scapegoats! A Defense of Kimmel and Short at Pearl Harbor," Beach made the case that Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and General Walter C. Short were wrongfully blamed for being caught off-guard in the devastating Dec. 7 1941 Japanese air attack. Beach blamed Pentagon officials in Washington for failing to transmit accurate war warnings in time.
Beach will be buried in Annapolis Md., directly across the street from Beach Hall, headquarters of the Naval Institute Press. This building was dedicated in tribute to both Captains Beach, father and son, in 1999.
Beach is survived by his widow, Ingrid, a sister, two sons, a daughter, and four grandchildren.
"Bless those who serve beneath the deep,
Through lonely hours their vigil keep.
May peace their mission ever be,
Protect each one we ask of thee.
Bless those at home who wait and pray,
For their return by night and day."
- Rev. Gale Williamson
"Lord God, our power evermore,
Whose arm doth reach the ocean floor,
Dive with our men beneath the sea;
Traverse the depths protectively.
O hear us when we pray, and keep
Them safe from peril in the deep."
- David B. Miller (1965)
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