D. Clayton Meadows' Of Ice and Steel.Com

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"OF ICE AND STEEL poses a thought-provoking cataclysmic undersea contest across a vivid fabric of space and time!"
--Joe Buff, author of SEAS OF CRISIS and STRAITS OF POWER

OF ICE AND STEEL

In the waste of the Arctic ice, a deadly relic lies, frozen and forgotten. When a new Russian revolution brings man kind to the very brink of oblivion, the sleeping relic is loosed on an already frightened world. Ships begin to disappear. The super powers accuse one another, as all nations, draw their battle lines. A nuclear devise is stolen, to be delivered to the most wanted and murderous terrorist in history. It is a time when only a spark is required to ignite a nuclear exchange. One man has the answer. Three men and three submarines must overcome mistrust, and their own demons to explain the unexplainable and deliver the world from a global holocaust.

Of Ice and Steel.Com Photo Gallery Page 3

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Nice picture of USS HAWKBILL SSN 666 surfacing on 6 May 1986. You can get an idea of ice thickness here. Note the ice still on top of the sail! Sometimes blocks of ice such as these made it impossible to open the bridge clam shells! If you couldn't move the ice the only alternative was to submerge and try another surfacing.

In this picture you get a good look at the anti-mine/anti-ice sonar window. I appears as the large rectangle at the front of the sail. Above that is another smaller rectangle. This is the whistle door. More than a few boats have forgotten to open the door before sounding the whistle door before sounding the whistle. The result? The whistle is driven by 150 lb air. While operating submerged the whistle tube floods with seawater. When air hits that water is comes out the whistle with the same pressure as a two inch high pressure fire hose.Now it the water has no where to go but upward and outward, the folks in the bridge are going to get a very sudden and often freezing shower!

Further aft you can make out another small rectangle. This and the one directly opposite are the doors for the retractable doors for the port and starboard running lights.

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A rare picture of a Russian VICTOR III loading the "business end". Unlike American submarines that load weapons down a circular hatch, second and third generations Russian submarines load horizontally directly into the torpedo room.

I am unable to determine the location of this picture but believe it to be in the Pacific. The difference in American and Russian submarine operations is evidenced in this picture. Note that only a few personnel are actively involved. When US subs load out. We have safety observers, check lists, supervisors, fire hoses laid out and ready. As a matter of fact when I first saw this picture I actually cringed. I only see four people, and those guys are not wearing hard hats!

The weapon you see appears to be a late design, and a war shot. Torpedoes come in two flavors, an Exercise (One that can be launched recovered and used again) and a War shot (One that is used in combat) This weapon carries no colored banding or exercise marks.

D. Clayton Meadows

Of Ice and Steel.Com

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