Edward L. Beach; Naval Captain, Author of ‘Run Silent, Run Deep’

Edward Latimer “Ned” Beach, author of the best-selling thriller “Run Silent, Run Deep,” which was made into a major motion picture, died Sunday. The U.S. Navy captain, whose 1960 record for circumnavigating the globe in a submarine still stands, was 84.

Beach, who had cancer, died at his Washington, D.C., home, said his son, Edward Beach III.

The public may best remember Beach for “Run Silent, Run Deep,” which was made into the 1958 film starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster. But for Beach, author of 11 books and countless articles for such magazines as Argosy, National Geographic and Esquire, writing was a sideline. His career was the Navy.

Beach was born in New York City in 1918 to a Navy officer, a captain who had served in actions in the Philippines and the Caribbean.

His father tried to dissuade him from the rigors of a Navy career, but he persisted and graduated second in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1939.

The younger Beach earned 10 decorations for gallantry in World War II, including the Navy Cross for his role in sinking Japanese ships in shallow waters just miles from the enemy coast.

He later recalled saying goodbye to the crew of the U.S. submarine Trigger in May 1944, where he had served as second-in-command, when he was transferred to another submarine.

“What I didn’t realize was that we were splitting those who were going to live from those who were going to die,” he said. The Japanese sank the Trigger in March 1945, and all aboard died.

The drama of the cramped quarters of a submarine at war was the basis for the 1955 novel, “Run Silent, Run Deep,” which was about a clash between a revenge-obsessed captain and his crew. He wrote it while working as a naval aide to President Eisenhower.

Asked once how he had had time to write the book, Beach said: “Instead of playing golf or going to a lot of parties, I would come home after hours at the White House, sit in my living room with a clipboard and write.” His father also wrote novels while a naval officer.

Screenwriter John Gay crafted the film script for Gable and Lancaster from Beach’s novel. Leonard Maltin in his annual movie and video guide has called the highly successful movie “one of the great World War II ‘sub’ pictures.”

But Beach didn’t like its melodrama. “It’s not true to the Navy that I saw and tried to describe,” he told All Hands, a Navy periodical, in 1999.

In 1960, Beach commanded the Triton, a nuclear-powered submarine that circumnavigated the globe in 84 days -- a record that still stands. With his crew of 183 officers and men, Beach followed much the same route as the explorer Magellan had sailed in 1519-22, only underwater. The Triton, the world’s first submarine equipped with twin nuclear reactors, left Groton, Conn., on Feb. 16, 1960, and surfaced off Rehoboth Beach, Del., less than three months later on May 10.

Beach’s account of the voyage, “Around the World Submerged,” was published in 1962. He said it had been tougher to endure a 24-hour depth-charging from the Japanese than to circumnavigate the globe beneath the ocean surface.

He retired in 1966, and turned his pen to sometimes sharp critiques of his former employer.

In his 1995 book, “Scapegoats! A Defense of Kimmel and Short at Pearl Harbor,” Beach made the case that Adm. Husband E. Kimmel and Gen. Walter C. Short were wrongfully blamed for being caught off-guard in the devastating Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese air attack. Beach blamed Pentagon officials in Washington for failing to transmit accurate war warnings in time.

Among Beach’s books were “Submarine!” in 1952, “The Wreck of the Memphis” in 1966, “Dust on the Sea” in 1972, “Cold Is the Sea” in 1978 and “U.S. Navy Today: A Portrait” in 1982.

In addition to his military service medals, he received the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for literary achievement from the U.S. Navy League in 1980.

Beach also wrote a television script, “Enrico Tazzoli.”

He will be buried in Annapolis, Md., directly across the street from Beach Hall, headquarters of the Naval Institute Press. This building was dedicated in tribute to both Capts. Beach, father and son, in 1999.

In addition to his son Edward, Beach is survived by his wife, Ingrid; another son; a daughter; a sister; and four grandchildren.