Full Fathom Five: A Daughter's Search [Hardcover]

One womans quest for knowledge of her father lost at sea

Mary Lee Coe Fowler was a posthumous child, born after her father, a submarine skipper in the Pacific, was lost at sea in 1943. Her mother quickly remarried into a difficult and troubled relationship, and Mary Lees biological father was never mentioned. It was not until her mother died and Mary Lee was a middle-aged adult that she set out to learn not only who her father was, but what happened to him and his crew, and whyand also to confront why she had shied away from asking these questions until it was nearly too late.

Fowler searched through old ships logs, letters, and naval communiqu?s; visited submarine museums, the Naval Academy, and other pertinent sites; interviewed old friends and crew members who knew her dad and mom or served concurrently; and slowly reconstructed the world in which they lived. Beautifully written, Fowlers memoir reveals what she eventually learned: of the perils and harships of submarine service in wartime, of the tragic irony of how her fathers sub was probably lost, and of the long-term damage experienced by the families of those who do not come home from war.

InFull Fathom Five, Mary Lee Coe Fowler tells the moving story of her search for the father she never knewa U.S. Navy submarine commander lost at sea in the Pacific during World War II. Born after his disappearance in 1943 and raised in a family where his name was never spoken, Fowler did not begin her quest for answers until middle age, after her mothers death. Drawing on naval records, wartime correspondence, ships logs, museum archives, and interviews with surviving submariners and contemporaries, she reconstructs her fathers life, service, and probable fate. Interweaving meticulous historical research with deeply personal reflection, Fowler illuminates the dangers of submarine warfare and the enduring emotional consequences for families left behind.Full Fathom Fivel3.