Chapter Four

Brief Summary-  The United States has become aware of the Red October; a spy has informed the CIA that it has sailed, and pictures of it have been sent to the CIA.  It is forty four feet longer than the submarines of her class, and has more torpedo tubes.  Along with this is has four mysterious doors on it , two on each side.  CIA agent Jack Ryan, with the permission of James Greer, plans to show these pictures to Skip Taylor, an expert on submarines, who Ryan believes may be able to shed some light on the mysterious doors.  When Skip examines these photos he determines that it is a Typhoon class submarine, which are the largest and some of the quietest submarines, and that it had twenty-six missiles instead of twenty.  He also realizes that the doors resemble the tunnel drive system that the United States had once attempted to develop before it was dropped because they couldn't get it to work efficiently.  However, if this system was successfully it would make the submarine using it nearly undetectable.

Journal-  I can see why Ramius sent the letter to Moscow to inform the State of his plan.  If the doors are what Skip Taylor thinks they are, no one would be able to find the Red October, why not tell inform them, they won't be able to stop him anyway.  That makes Ramius seem overly confident about the situation; he thinks no one will be able to stop him because of his intellect and superior submarine.