Naval Undersea Museum Mountains to Sea Book Festival

On Saturday November 13, the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport is hosting the Mountains to Sea Book Festival. The festival will include over 20 authors who will give presentations and sign books.

Seattle Base member and author Don Ulmer will be giving a presentation on the rescue of a B-29 bomber crew by the submarine USS Springer (SS-414). He will be showing a DVD of the rescue filmed with a 7mm color camera by one of Springer's crewmen.

At one point in the film, a submariner dives from Springer and swims to a downed airman and rescues him in a nick of time. This downed airman later wrote in part, "After what seemed hours in the water, I could feel my energy had almost been used up. The situation for me began to look hopeless. So this is the way people die, I thought. Well maybe it's better than getting shot while floating down in your parachute or starving to death in a Japanese prison." This airman got separated from the other seven and waited alone in the water with nothing more than a half inflated life jacket.

The role of the Submarine Lifeguard League is a little known part of American submarine history and this film will show some of the challenges associated with that duty. 

The book festival runs from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm and is a good chance to see the museum and maybe do a little early Christmas shopping.

You can find out more about the festival by checking the museum’s website and Facebook pages.

Friday Update: John Clear, Commander USSVI Olympic Peninsula Base and proprietor of Submarine Memorabilia, let me know that any submarine veteran that makes a purchase at the festival gets 10% off, although he says to remind him about the discount since he may get a little busy at times.