eBook

Full Fathom Five

Mary Lee Coe Fowler

2010,2008

Overview

One woman’s 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 Lee’s 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 why—and 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 communiqués; 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, Fowler’s memoir reveals what she eventually learned: of the perils and harships of submarine service in wartime, of the tragic irony of how her father’s sub was probably lost, and of the long-term damage experienced by the families of those who do not come home from war.

• Publisher: University of Alabama Press,The University of Alabama Press
• Subject: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Children of military personnel / Fathers and daughters / Fowler, Mary Lee Coe, 1944 / History / Military Studies / Mothers and daughters / Naval operations / Parent and adult child / Personal Memoirs / United States / World War, 1939-1945
• ISBN: 9780817316112, 0817316116