Chapter Eighteen

Brief Summary-  The Red October successfully docks at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard where Ramius and Williams make a full recovery.  The CIA believes that it is possible that some men may still be alive on the V. K. Konovalov, but if they are rescued the Soviet government will learn the truth about the Red October and the V. K. Konovalov, so they are left behind.  Ryan is then dismissed, and returns to his family in London.

Journal-  I was a bit upset that the men on the V. K. Konovalov weren't saved, but I don't see how they could have saved them and still kept the Red October's successful defection a secret if they had.  We could not have held them captive, or just turn them over to the Soviets.

Excellent novel; I would defiantly recommend it.

Chapter Seventeen

Brief Summary-  On the Red October's journey to the United States it accidentally passes to close to a Russian submarine hanging around, unnoticed to report on any new developments.  The sonar man aboard the V. K. Konovalov picks up a noise.  When he reports the noise to the captain, Ramius's former pupil Tupolev, he orders that the ship run on a fraction of its power to let the United States ships drift up to them.  When the subs get closer Tupolev orders the engineers to increase power, this is picked up by the USS Pogy who was traveling ahead to check that every thing was all clear.  Pogy sends a danger signal back to the USS Dallas and the Red October.  However, the V. K. Konovalov is now close enough to the Red October to pick up her Russian characteristics and determines that the Red October is not on the bottom of the ocean.  Tupolev is advised by the political officer to surface and send word to Moscow, but Tupolev doesn't want to let Ramius get away, so he launches two missiles at the Red October.  The officers have time to react, and they turn the ship so that it is facing the missiles and thus presents a smaller target.  The first missile misses low, but the second hits just forward of the control room, and explodes.  After the impact the Red October was hidden in a mask of bubbles, but it was not dead.  The V. K. Konovalov expected her to move north under the Pogy's diversionary pinging, but Ramius was staying put to allow the Konovalov to rift past so the Red October could follow in her blind spot.  Once Tupolev figured out what Ramius was up to he swung around and launched a torpedo at the Red October.  Jones reported the distance of the 'fish' to the Red October, but Ramius insisted on hearing only the distance to the Konovalov.  He ordered a full speed ahead, directly at the Soviet submarine.  On missile submarines the torpedoes can not arm themselves until they are five hundred to a thousand yards away from the boat that launched them to prevent them from blowing up their own sub.  Ramius was counting on this; the Red October closed the distance to the V. K. Konovalov and the torpedo struck the submarine harmlessly and fell to the ocean floor.  The Red October then collided with the V. K. Konovalov, the Red October scrapped against the Soviet submarine, rupturing the Konovalov's pressure hull and sending her crumpling to the ocean floor.

Journal- I didn't know how they were going to get out of that; they couldn't fire on a Russian submarine without starting a war, but all of the American vessels involved still have all of their torpedoes and the Konovalov was unable to send a signal of its destruction. 

Chapter Sixteen

Brief Summary-  The crew of the Red October were brought to the United States were they are meet by a mob of media reports.  The overwhelming encounter, which took a few hours to get away from, was entirely unexpected.  After this they were to be taken to a hospital for medical checks including one for radiation exposure.  On their way they were taken through Washington D.C., the crew was shocked to see so many cars, after which the American officers informed them that most people in the United States have one or two cars, and public transportation is used only when people don't want to drive.  Most of the Russians were not quick to believe this, and thought of the possibility the United States organized the whole thing to put on a good show or try to get them to stay in the United State, four do.

          On the Red October, the officers and the Americans are discussing what made them go into their occupations.  The Russians are surprised to learn that Mancuso is not the son of a spy or an important politician.

Journal-  I'm thinking that the Soviets will eventually learn what really happened to the Red October, with spies and if the United States starts using new submarines with caterpillar drive systems.  I wonder whats going to happen then.  It seem like the thing that could put the US and the Soviets on the brink of war.

Chapter Fifteen

Brief Summary-  Ryan requests medics from the USS Dallas and the USS Pogy.  After Ramius and Williams gets medical attention, the Americans devote all of their attention to making sure the Russians are happy and that they have a change a heart.  They feed them the best food they have, and show them E. T. to impress them.  The Soviet are rather surprised by all that they learn; the fact that the Americans are allowed to believe in God comes as an unexpected shock.  Relations between the Soviets and the Americans are going surprisingly well so far.

          Moscow learns that the Red October has been destroyed, those in charge believe that this is due to the spy aboard who it appears managed to keep the submarine out of the hands of the United States.

Journal-  This was an interesting chapter; seeing the Russian reactions to life in America.  I am looking forward to seeing what they will think if the crew tells the officers more about what they can expect their new lives to be like.

Chapter Fourteen

Brief Summary-  For the next step of Ryan's plan he needs a grow of men who are fluent in Russian.  When he calls the President asking for permission to use several men, and brief them on the current situation he is allowed one.  Owen Williams, a long time submariner with a degree in Russian is briefed five minutes later.

          On the Red October, the situation is looking bleak; with the repairs going the way they are the submarine will only have battery power in a matter of hours, and that shouldn't last them more than a few more hours.  Ramius is still keeping up his act of strict Soviet allegiance and declares that the Red October shall never fall into Imperialist hands.  He tells the crew that they cannot call for help this close to the United States.  A few hours later Ramius announces that they must abandon ship; they are too far from Cuba to ask for help and there is not chance of help from Russia.  The crew will abandon ship with the United States submarine who is following them, and has offered assistance.  The officers shall stay on board and, when the crew is off the sub, the officers shall set of the scuttling charges, destroying the Red October.

          Ryan and Williams now enter the USS Mystic, a submersible designed to link up with submarines.  They descend to the depth of the Red October and join with her.  Once inside they begin evacuating the crew with the Mystic, and in the commotion, no one notices the cook disappear.

          Later on, once the crew has been has been evacuated, Ryan thinks he hears gun shots coming from the missile room.  Ryan and Ramius go to investigate the noise and learn that there is a soviet spy on board who learned of Ramius's plan after the crew was evacuated.  He now plans to detonate on of the war heads and destroy the Red October.  When they find him he shots Ramius in the leg.  Ryan throw on of the clips for his pistol, and when the agent looked in the direction of the noise, Ryan jumped out and shot the man.

          Moments later the USS Ethan Allan exploded after all those aboard were evacuated with the USS Mystic.

Journal-  This chapter was defiantly my favorite so far, I read it all in one sitting.  The climax was defiantly everything I was expecting. 

Chapter Thirteen

Brief Summary-  The USS Dallas has alerted the Red October of her presence during a Crazy Ivan.  Ramius believes that the submarine has accidentally stumbled upon the in the last two hours, and now Ryan and the USS Invincible have caught up with the Red October.  The Invincible begins sending a message to Ramius using a flash light and Morse code; this will assure that only the captain, using the periscope.   "RED OCTOBER CAN YOU READ THIS PLEASE PING US ONCE ON ACTIVE SONAR", Ramius orders Borodin to check range to the USS Dallas with a single ping.  The USS Invincible goes on to tell Ramius that the whole Russian fleet is after him and that they plan to sink him, they go on to say that he should proceed to 33N 75W to rendezvous with United States ships.

          The USS Ethan Allan is currently at 33N 75W, waiting for their part of the plan to begin. 

          The Red October has gone in to a state of alert; the reactor situation has, according to Ramius's announcement to the crew, become very serious.

Journal-  Ramius is defiantly planning to fake reactor problems to get the crew off the submarine at 33N 75W, where the USS Ethan Allan is waiting to begin its last assignment, which I believe is to explode in the place of the Red October after the crew has been evacuated.

Chapter Twelve

Brief Summary-  The USS Dallas has been tracking the Red October for twenty-four hours with no counter detection.  The Dallas is following the mysterious Russian in its blind spot, the immediate back of the submarine which cannot use sonar to detect anything in this area.  About every two hours the Red October undergoes a Russian maneuver known as the Crazy Ivan,  when a submarine undergoes a complete turn to check for any submarines in its blind spot.   To counter it the USS Dallas must cut all power and drift without steering at the Russian sub, and risk collision, which has happened before.

After a successful counter maneuver, the USS Dallas sends a message to the COMSUBLANT Operations informing them of the Dallas's success thus far.  COMSUBLANT Operations them radios to the US Invincible of the Red Octobers position, and Ryan and the sub begging moving toward her location.

Journal-  I'm really getting exited about when Ryan catches up to the Red October.  I don't know how they're going to communicate without the crew finding out, or how they're going to get the crew off the submarine without them finding out that the officers are defecting.  I think the sinking of the E. S. Politovskiy would give Ryan the idea to tell the officers on board the Red October to fake a reactor problem.  After that the United States could 'save' the crew.  However, I'm not sure what they're going to do about the submarine after that, except blow up the USS Ethan Allan, pretending it is the Red October.

Chapter Eleven

Brief Summary-  At the Norfolk Naval Medical Center, the Russian submariner seems to be on his way to recovery; he is stable and his radiation exposure was not enough to cause physiological effects.  During his recovery, the mans doctor, Dr. Tait, discovers one of the Russians who is overseeing the mans recovery, Petchkin, about to light a cigarette in the patent's room.  The submariner is currently on one hundred percent oxygen, so lighting a cigarette could cause a major fire which could kill the patent.  Dr. Tait, who has been told to save this patient at all cost forcefully removes Petchkin from the room, and instructs a guard to sure he never goes in there again, and that the patent is to never be unattended.  Dr. Tait accuses the Russian of purposely attempting to kill the submariner.

           On the Red October, Melekhin has discovered the leak and, with the help of Borodin, attempts to fix.  During the repair Melekhin determines that they were sabotaged by someone with extensive mechanical and reactor knowledge.

Journal-  I am wondering if the Russians indeed believe that the E. S. Politovskiy is the Red October, and are trying to kill one of the defectors, or if the incident merely contrasts the extreme differences in the safety procedures of the United States and Russia.

Chapter Ten

Brief Summary-  Both United States and Soviet ships and aircraft have orders to not engage the other unless fired upon first.  Both take to openly provoking one another with fighter planes flying past the carriers and surface ships of the other.  The Americans drop flares around a Soviet ship a night to inform them that if they had wanted to, they could have sank the Soviet ship.  The Soviets send a fighter plane on a mission through a group of American ships to prove that they can effectively navigate through the lines of the other without being detected.  The Americans do detect this plane and send aircraft of their own out to escort it back to its ship.  This encounter leaves the Russians feeling resentful of the Americans.  A Russian Kingfish fighter and several American Tomcats run into each other and begin to fly around one another with missiles locked on.  This ends with no loss of life.

          One survivor has been found from the E. S. Politovskiy, he is in critical condition and has pneumonia, which could seriously effect his chances of survival.  He is rushed to the Norfolk Naval Medical Center, and put under the care of the best doctors at the hospital.  The President is determined that this man live, if he does it could improve relations between the united States and the Soviet Union.

           At the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, the USS Ethan Allen is being prepared for its final mission, and is brought out understaffed.

Journal-  I thought that the United States was going to pretend that the E. S. Politovskiy was the Red October in order to gain her without the Soviets being suspicious.  However, it is starting to seem like the USS Ethan Allan is going to self destruct after evacuating the crew.  For an old submarine to be going out on its last mission, understaffed, after Tyler told Greer that his plan required an old submarine that the United States could do without, they're probably planning to destroy her when the Red October is in the hands of the United States.

Chapter Nine

Brief Summary-  Skip Tyler arrives at the Pentagon and proposes an idea to Greer about how to get the get the Red October.  The reader isn't yet privileged to the plan, but Tyler did mention the use of "an old boomer of our own that we can afford to do without" (165).

          On the Red October, Melekhin has discovered that the Geiger counters have been sabotaged, and the exposure shown on the badges is correct.  Melekhin and his engineers have been receiving the largest doses.  Borodin and Melekhin now plan to find the leak and fix it before the problem of radiation exposure becomes dangerous.  The officers are still determined to keep the reactor leak from the crew.

          The United States has began deploying their own ships and aircraft, along with a submarine rescue ship, to observe the Soviets and activate their own plans for gaining the Red October and saving any crewmen aboard the E. S. Politovskiy.

          In the Soviet Union, Padorin, who approved of Ramius's officer appointments, is now facing interrogation from the Chairman, General Secretary, Defense Minister, and other important Soviet officials.

          The president informs the Soviet ambassador that they have found the missing submarine; he tells Arbatov that a hundred miles north of Norfolk a united States submarine had observed an underwater explosion that was not from a United States sub, or a submarine belonging to any United States allied nation.  Furthermore, the President informs the ambassador that the United State will execute a rescue mission to attempt to save any survivors of the explosion.

Journal-   I feel a bit bad for Padorin, with the KGB track record I feel as though this guy isn't going to make it to the end of the novel.  It does seem unfair to blame him for the lost of the Red October; anyone would have approved of Ramius's officers, they were all highly qualified and there was no suspicions against any of them.

Chapter Eight

Brief Summary-  Arbatov, a Soviet ambassador, has arrived at the White House to meet with the President, who questions Arbatov about the "troubling increase in Soviet naval activity in the North Atlantic".  Upon being asked this, the ambassador denies any knowledge of this and is told by the President to tell Moscow that the United States will be deploying ships and aircraft to observe those the Soviets have sent out.  Later, Arbatov informs the President that Moscow has ordered a full scale search and rescue mission for a lost submarine, and he apologises for his government not having time to inform him of this.  The President informs falsely the ambassador that they had suspicions of a rescue mission and offers the Soviets any help they may need.

          Skip Tyler has finished his computer program that details the speed, noise level, and other important features regarding her detectability, characteristics, and stealth.  According to his report, the Red October will be harder to detect than anything the Soviets have at this time.
           The USS Pogy, who was stationed near the USS Dallas has been ordered to join up with its counterpart and track and shadow.
           The E. S. Politovskiy has detected problems with its reactor plant, which prove to be serious.  The Russian submarine is forced to surface, but the fuel rods were over heating so in an attempt to cool off the reactor that compartment of the ship was flooded with sea water.  This inadvertently began to sink the submarine.  Half of the crew was killed during the flooding, and the other half, those who had gotten into radiation compartments that weren't compromised when the submarine hit the ocean floor, would die of asphyxiation.
           As the USS Pogy moved to her new destination she was close enough to the E. S. Politovskiy to here her accident and request assistance to its location.

Journal-  I thought this chapter was very easy to read because most of what was in it wasn't in the movie. The sinking of the E. S. Politovskiy was rather interesting and I'm wondering if the United Stated are going to try to prevent that it was the Red October if the defecting sub is successful in reaching the United States.

Chapter Seven

Brief Summary-  On the USS Dallas, Sonarman Jones believes he can track the unusual sounding Russian submarine.  Mancuso, the captain of USS Dallas, sends a message to COMSUBLANT Operations asking for permission to leave their current location and track her.  COMSUBLANT grant the USS Dallas permission to track the submarine and report back as necessary. 

          On the V. K. Konovalov, Tupolev is racing toward the Atlantic with order to find and destroy the Red October.

          On the Red October, Chief Engineer Melekhin discovers that the radiation badges are showings signs of exposer, upon checking two more batches of the badges he determines that there must be a leak in the reactor.  Ramius calls a meeting of the officers and is determined to keep it from the crew for as long as possible to prevent a panic.  Later, Melekhin discover that no serious levels of radiation a being picked by the Geiger counters, and it is concluded that someone has sabotaged their badges, but to be safe it is decided that they should check for leaks.

          Ryan has been flown out to the USS Invincible to help locate the Red October, and help her should she really be planning to defect.

Journal-  I think Ramius handled the radiation incident very impressively, keeping that from the crew was a very good idea; if they found out that they were being exposed to radiation would have caused a scare, and while they are trapped in a submarine, that could lead to hysteria.