Introduction: The Silent Service --
Prologue: August 12, 2000: the final moments aboard the Russian Navy's nuclear submarine Kursk --
The Birth of the Submarine: A brief history of early subs-- including the Turtle and the Nautilus --
The First Underwater Weapon of War: The American Confederate sub H.L. Hunley --
The Submarine Comes of Age: The influence of John Holland on Submarine design --
Battle under the Sea: The submarine has now become a formidable weapon--as Germany's U-boats prove during the First World War --
Lost in Peace: Two submarine tragedies, the US Navy's Squalus and the Royal Navy's Thetis, dominate peacetime headlines --
The U-boat War: Germany revolutionizes the way submarines are used in combat --
A Casualty of the Cold War: A tiny piece of aluminum foil spells disaster for the US Navy's nuclear submarine Scorpion --
Disaster under the Barents Sea: The tragic story of the Kursk --
Epilogue: For Those in Peril.