Poseidon Book Launch
Last Thursday afternoon, Myles, Brigid, and I made a last-minute decision to attend a book launch at The Bookworm for Steven Schwankert's Poseidon: China's Secret Salvage of Britain's Lost Submarine. I had seen the announcements on twitter and on my weekly emails from the Bookworm, but I hadn't planned to attend. The logistics for getting there in time to buy tickets and home again while the trains were still running seemed daunting (as it was we made the last train back to Changping with only a few minutes to spare), but it ended up being so worth it.
more after the jump
Schwankert is a writer, editor, and professional diver living in Beijing. With his company Sinoscuba, he provides diving instruction and leads diving experiences around China. One of his popular destinations is a section of Great Wall that was flooded over when a dam was built (and you can see a TED talk about it here, and I really appreciate how he describes the dive being more than a novelty but also providing a perspective on the Wall that one could only get being suspended from above). He also has lead dives to a Ming-era walled city that is at the bottom of a reservoir in Zhejiang province.
Most of what follows is from my notes of Schwankert's talk.
An online search for other diving opportunities around China focused initially on 19th century shipwrecks led Schwankert to discovering the HMS Poseidon. This British Parthian-class submarine sunk tragically in 1931 off the coast of Shandong province during routine peacetime maneuvers. Without the benefit of radio communications that otherwise could have prevented all of this, a series of misjudgments put the Poseidon into a collision course with a Chinese merchant ship SS Yuta. The Poseidon was not submerged, so the crew on the upper deck abandoned ship at the surface. The crew inside the sub had only a few moments warning after the captain sounded the collision warning, ordering all watertight doors shut. What followed in the next few hours was a daring escape by the some of the trapped crew. The captain ended up court-martialed, and the officer who led the escape from the downed sub was lauded a hero. In all, there twenty-one perished in the accident. The sinking made world news at the time, and even inspired a motion picture. Within a few months, though, it was no longer the biggest story as world events started to lead into World War II.
This much of the story was enough to pique Schwankert's interest in finding the wreck and diving it. However, his further research led him in unexpected directions. The recent availability of a journal of one of the survivors shed light on the Poseidon and the crew before and after the accident, beyond the official reports. After reading this and the candid minutiae it provided, Schwankert said at the book launch it changed his approach to the project. The Poseidon was no longer just a "hunk of metal" to him. This really struck me when he described this shift, how suddenly there were human stories beyond the official account and a list of names.
Another twist came when Schwankert found in a Chinese magazine, Modern Ships, reference to a 1972 salvage operation conducted by the Chinese government without informing the British authorities. There are no extant records about the salvage, blamed on the turbulent times in China in the 1970s.
The Poseidon was no longer in the Bohai sea, but this new information provided him new avenues to pursue, like why was there a Chinese salvage of a 40 year old submarine, and what happened to the remains of the men who went down with it. At the Bookworm he also described his efforts to learn what happened to the large British cemetery where the deceased from this accident were memorialized in Shandong. It was particularly chilling when he showed a photo of a headstone fragment he stumbled upon in a stone wall. Very clearly he could see "DIED AU." He found some other complete gravestones in another nearby location, but none were the Poseidon memorial. The cemetery site itself was walled-off in a prohibited area.
I bought the book that night, and while Schwankert was signing it, he noted the presence of my kids. Myles was particularly riveted by the talk which was well-supported with a presentation of historical photographs and maps that are also in the book. For Myles, most memorable, he told me, was that Schwankert's research uncovered an unheroic portrait of the recognized hero. That really stuck with him, the idea that the official account and reality might not match. Brigid, for her part, was quiet through the night, so that was enough for me. She was also ready at the end to volunteer to stand in line to get the book signed (and that is when this was taken). After a few years of this, she knows that when the talk at the Bookworm is over, we say "thank you" and get the book autographed.
I have already begun the book, and it is already as good a read as I hoped. It reminds me a little of John Man's histories, as much about the events or locations as the author's experiences of the research and discovery. The downside for you guys in the US who might now be interested in this book is that it appears that print editions are least expensively available through the publisher, Hong Kong University Press (discounted price of US$32 plus about $5 for surface shipping). It is possible to buy it for Kindle right now directly from Amazon, but it is much more expensive than the usual ebooks. There is also a documentary that has been filmed and making some film festival rounds, so this might be another way for people in the US to learn more than what is already published on the internet.
more after the jump
Schwankert is a writer, editor, and professional diver living in Beijing. With his company Sinoscuba, he provides diving instruction and leads diving experiences around China. One of his popular destinations is a section of Great Wall that was flooded over when a dam was built (and you can see a TED talk about it here, and I really appreciate how he describes the dive being more than a novelty but also providing a perspective on the Wall that one could only get being suspended from above). He also has lead dives to a Ming-era walled city that is at the bottom of a reservoir in Zhejiang province.
Most of what follows is from my notes of Schwankert's talk.
An online search for other diving opportunities around China focused initially on 19th century shipwrecks led Schwankert to discovering the HMS Poseidon. This British Parthian-class submarine sunk tragically in 1931 off the coast of Shandong province during routine peacetime maneuvers. Without the benefit of radio communications that otherwise could have prevented all of this, a series of misjudgments put the Poseidon into a collision course with a Chinese merchant ship SS Yuta. The Poseidon was not submerged, so the crew on the upper deck abandoned ship at the surface. The crew inside the sub had only a few moments warning after the captain sounded the collision warning, ordering all watertight doors shut. What followed in the next few hours was a daring escape by the some of the trapped crew. The captain ended up court-martialed, and the officer who led the escape from the downed sub was lauded a hero. In all, there twenty-one perished in the accident. The sinking made world news at the time, and even inspired a motion picture. Within a few months, though, it was no longer the biggest story as world events started to lead into World War II.
This much of the story was enough to pique Schwankert's interest in finding the wreck and diving it. However, his further research led him in unexpected directions. The recent availability of a journal of one of the survivors shed light on the Poseidon and the crew before and after the accident, beyond the official reports. After reading this and the candid minutiae it provided, Schwankert said at the book launch it changed his approach to the project. The Poseidon was no longer just a "hunk of metal" to him. This really struck me when he described this shift, how suddenly there were human stories beyond the official account and a list of names.
Another twist came when Schwankert found in a Chinese magazine, Modern Ships, reference to a 1972 salvage operation conducted by the Chinese government without informing the British authorities. There are no extant records about the salvage, blamed on the turbulent times in China in the 1970s.
The Poseidon was no longer in the Bohai sea, but this new information provided him new avenues to pursue, like why was there a Chinese salvage of a 40 year old submarine, and what happened to the remains of the men who went down with it. At the Bookworm he also described his efforts to learn what happened to the large British cemetery where the deceased from this accident were memorialized in Shandong. It was particularly chilling when he showed a photo of a headstone fragment he stumbled upon in a stone wall. Very clearly he could see "DIED AU." He found some other complete gravestones in another nearby location, but none were the Poseidon memorial. The cemetery site itself was walled-off in a prohibited area.
I bought the book that night, and while Schwankert was signing it, he noted the presence of my kids. Myles was particularly riveted by the talk which was well-supported with a presentation of historical photographs and maps that are also in the book. For Myles, most memorable, he told me, was that Schwankert's research uncovered an unheroic portrait of the recognized hero. That really stuck with him, the idea that the official account and reality might not match. Brigid, for her part, was quiet through the night, so that was enough for me. She was also ready at the end to volunteer to stand in line to get the book signed (and that is when this was taken). After a few years of this, she knows that when the talk at the Bookworm is over, we say "thank you" and get the book autographed.
I have already begun the book, and it is already as good a read as I hoped. It reminds me a little of John Man's histories, as much about the events or locations as the author's experiences of the research and discovery. The downside for you guys in the US who might now be interested in this book is that it appears that print editions are least expensively available through the publisher, Hong Kong University Press (discounted price of US$32 plus about $5 for surface shipping). It is possible to buy it for Kindle right now directly from Amazon, but it is much more expensive than the usual ebooks. There is also a documentary that has been filmed and making some film festival rounds, so this might be another way for people in the US to learn more than what is already published on the internet.
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