A Novel with a US Nuclear Submarine firing a Vulcan Phalanx AD gun...

About 20 years ago I was browsing in one of the bookshops in London's Charing Cross Road and a paoperback novel caught my eye. On the cover was an artists impression of a US nuclear submarine with a Vulcan Phalanx 20mm system mounted aft of the fin surfaced and firing at a group of armed winged aerial fighters (a la Brian Blessed in Flash Gordon). I leafed through the book and the story seemed to match th picture with an account of a US nuclear submarine being time or space shifted to another world. Unfortunately I was running late and the usual London bookshop queue of the Walking Dead prevented me from paying for the book so I left it.

Many years later I bought a proper textbook on US nuclear subs and was reminded of this silly but rather fun artwork and story. I have tried various permutation searches on the Web but without an author or a title and given the sheer quantity of such pulp fiction paperbacks I doubt I will ever come across a copy. But may be given the diverse crowd that show up here the book might ring a bell. If not at least the notion of the story might amuse...

The Illustration was by Peter Elson

According to the details on the Peter Elson website the picture was for a book by A.E. VanVogt & E Mayne Hull. The title may have been 'The Winged Man'.

I'd be interested in finding a copy just to see how closely that illustration matched the submarines description in the book.

A.E. Van Vogt The Winged Men 1966
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._E._van_Vogt
A bit of an odd duck.
E. Mayne Hull
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_Mayne_Hull
Edna Mayne Hull was the first wife of A. E. van Vogt.


Google The Winged Men - The Images has this cover
A.E. Van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull as authors

The Winged Man. Sphere 8731, Nov 1977. Cover by Peter Elson.

Graham
spall

I found your comments this afternoon visiting the site on my crumby little vodaphone as I do not have a computer at home and was so excited that I rushed into the Kidlington Library to check out your links and of course to thank you. That you found the picture so easily confirms my old f**t status.

I visited the site for Peter Elson and am quite choked up. His work is classic 70s and quite wonderful. I would certainly have liked to buy him a drink and even better get him to do some artwork of my fave stuff CVA 01 TSR2s, Polar Bears, drink....

I have printed off the image and will put it in my copy of US Nuclear Submarines (The Polmar one).
In fact the evening I saw the book I was late for a drinking evening with some mates in Fleet Street. Appropriate as Mr Elson would have been doing the same I think.

I shall track down a copy of the paperback on Amazon but as spall says I think the novel in fact does not mention the Phalanx. It looks so silly and so cool- punk mixture of modern technology and the old idea of arming subs with guns.

I shall raise a glass to Peter Elson

UK 75

Besides Amazon, you should consider using bookfinder4u.com

A search by title The Winged Men will turn up several entries.
The seventh entry (in my search) has your cover picture and the ISBN for the Sphere inprint -

see
http://www.bookfinder4u.com/IsbnSearch.aspx?isbn=0722187319&mode=direct

Price, condition, and sellers are listed.

Do be very, very careful with the correct URL bookfinder4u.com
There are various scammers camped out around this great URL.
One error (e.g. bookfinders4u.com) and you are down the rabbit hole.

You should also look at

Chris Moore
http://www.amazon.com/Journeyman-The-Art-Chris-Moore/dp/1855858495
https://www.google.com/search?q=artist+chris+moore+images&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=shW&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&prmd=imvnso&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=cMveT7kp5KLbBajg1OAB&ved=0CFYQsAQ&biw=1536&bih=954

Kurt Miller
http://www.kmistudio.com/blog/index.php/gallery/category/C1/
http://www.kmistudio.com/blog/index.php/gallery/image_full/183/

spall

Thanks for the warning! In fact I cheated and simply printed off a colour copy of the page about Mr Elson and full size A4 copy of the artwork page. Then I ordered the cheapest paperback I could find on Amazon without checking the cover. I ended up with the 1972 edition! No matter as I only wanted it to read.

The story was in fact written write at the end of WW2 and although there is one reference to Sea Serpent being an atomic submarine the remaining references to explosive torpedoes and to its 3inch deck gun belong to that period rather than the wonderful drawing of Mr Elson. The story is quite interesting Sci Fi and I won't spoil it for anyone.

Guess this is the only place you will find a Vulcan Phalanx equipped SSN!