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Dark Waters: An Insider's Account of the NR-1, The Cold War's Undercover Nuclear Sub
A former crewmember offers a detailed description of the U.S. Navy's top-secret, four-hundred-ton submarine, an expensive, dangerous vessel with a custom-built miniature nuclear reactor designed as a secret weapon during the Cold War. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 7, 2003
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192 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 31, 2019
I remember hearing about the NR-1, a nuclear powered submersible, back in the '70s. Finding any information about the sub at the time was almost impossible. This book finally tells the story of the sub, how it was created, and some of the things it was able to do in its 40 year life. Co-written by one of the sailors who was involved with the project at the beginning, it is full of anecdotes about what the boat was like and how it came to be. As many of the missions of this vehicle are still classified, the stories about actual missions are rather limited, but you definitely get a feel for what this boat, and the men who served on her, were capable of.
If you are interested in nuclear power, submarines, submersibles, and the cold war, you'll probably like this book. I know I did.
Thank you to the Davis County, UT Library for participating in the Inter-Library Loan program and making it possible for me to read this book.
If you are interested in nuclear power, submarines, submersibles, and the cold war, you'll probably like this book. I know I did.
Thank you to the Davis County, UT Library for participating in the Inter-Library Loan program and making it possible for me to read this book.
December 10, 2018
I’ve long been curious about the NR-1, and I’m glad I got a chance to experience it vicariously through Vyborny’s straight-forward but entertaining memoir. To read this book is to be reminded of the life-affirming value of risk, hard work, expertise and sacrifice. On top of that it’s an adventure story with few parallels. I challenge you to be able to put the book down when the author describes the perilous trip back across the Atlantic after recovering the Tomahawk middle. I sure as hell couldn’t. I felt a bit sad when I finished it. The NR-1 is no more, and the men who served on her have long since gone their separate ways. Finally, watch out: the descriptions of the living conditions, particularly those involving the “brown mountain”, are not for the faint of heart.
December 23, 2025
I purchased my copy of this book in paperback from Half Price Books in January 2025. It's the very interesting story of the US Navy's NR-1 submarine, a one-of-a-kind small nuclear craft designed to conduct undersea search, recovery, espionage, and research. The author was part of the sub's original crew when it was launched in the late 1960's and he recounts several of the sub's missions, all of them interesting and some of them downright hair-raising. If you have an interest in unusual nautical stories, this book would be a good choice for you. Four out of five stars.
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November 24, 2025Read this book because my partner recommended it … 2 thoughts:
1. They’re talking about fish robots and all I can think of is the poster ‘ceci n’est pas une pipe’
2. Oooh, a giant squid, lets poke it with the boat and see what happens (I think this might be another reason they don’t want women on subs)
1. They’re talking about fish robots and all I can think of is the poster ‘ceci n’est pas une pipe’
2. Oooh, a giant squid, lets poke it with the boat and see what happens (I think this might be another reason they don’t want women on subs)
December 17, 2020
Great Non-Fiction Submarine Book on the NR-1, its development, and its missions that reads like non-fiction. Highly recommended for Non-Fiction Military Nerds that like Submarine Technology and stories. The best I've read since Blind Man's Bluff many years ago.
March 17, 2022
One of the original crewman of the NR-1 takes us through the creation of the submarine and some of it's missions.
The book is a bit light on the mission description side, which is understandable because lot's of these are probably still classified. Still, and entertaining read.
The book is a bit light on the mission description side, which is understandable because lot's of these are probably still classified. Still, and entertaining read.
August 8, 2024
Could be the best book I’ve read this summer. The descriptions of engineering and processes were so well written that I never lost focus on what was happening. Such an amazing history and journey. I may read it again
February 3, 2018
Not as good as the "hype" on the books' inside cover leads you to believe; but it was okay.
September 22, 2021
A fascinating and detailed account of an expensive, unique, and very useful little submarine. Great read for military history buffs.
April 19, 2023
A great story of submariners, new discoveries on the ocean floor, and the race against the Soviets.
March 20, 2009
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.
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.
September 10, 2016
I've read other books on submarine intelligence operations, such as Blind Man's Bluff and The Silent War, and am also myself a veteran of Cold War era submarine service and so have more personal related experience than many, though my experience never had anything to do with the NR-1. I enjoyed this book and the personal aspect of its first person portions. The subject of this book is much narrower than the wider ranging history in those two books I mention and so, it is really even more a special interest book. It's mostly a personal memoir of the author's service on the sub, with some background history of its development added and third person accounts of events that occurred after the author's service on the boat. I found myself wanting more and wishing he had been able to include more about other operations of the boat into the 1970s and 1980s.
April 8, 2007
A dull read but filled with much info about the American development of nulcear powered submarines. Admeral Hymann Rickover was a hard driving force behind the push for nuclear power. A man dreaded by his subordinates because of his quest for perfection.
September 1, 2014
This was a really good history of the NR-1 sub during the years of the cold war. Provided good info and made me want to read read and learn more on this subject.
I'd buy my own copy of this book borrowed from my local library, but all the copies I find on the net are prohibitively expensive.
I'd buy my own copy of this book borrowed from my local library, but all the copies I find on the net are prohibitively expensive.
July 30, 2016
This is the description of the NR-1 that I've been waiting for. Lee Vyborny was a plankowner of the boat and was even involved during its construction. There's plenty of Rickover material there as well.
July 4, 2008
Interesting. A little jealous of the Astronauts, but other than that quite good.
January 3, 2014
I loved this book about Adm. Rickover's little sub that could,and how he ran rough shod over the navy to get it built.
December 11, 2015
detailed, great read
June 5, 2019
Easy read and great history, innovation and adventures, in secret.
June 28, 2008
Great book if you are into submarines!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews