Full Fathom Five: A Daughter's Search

Fowler, Mary Lee Coe

ISBN 10: 0817360832 / ISBN 13: 9780817360832

Published by University Alabama Press, 2023

About this Item

First Edition NO-PA16APR2015-KAP.

Seller Inventory # 26396092670

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Full Fathom Five: A Daughter's Search
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0817360832
• ISBN 13: 9780817360832
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

One woman’s quest for knowledge of her father lost at sea

Mary Lee Coe Fowler was a posthumous child, born after her father, a submarine skipper in the Pacific, was lost at sea in 1943. Her mother quickly remarried into a difficult and troubled relationship, and Mary Lee’s biological father was never mentioned. It was not until her mother died and Mary Lee was a middle-aged adult that she set out to learn not only who her father was, but what happened to him and his crew, and why―and also to confront why she had shied away from asking these questions until it was nearly too late.

Fowler searched through old ships’ logs, letters, and naval communiqués; visited submarine museums, the Naval Academy, and other pertinent sites; interviewed old friends and crew members who knew her dad and mom or served concurrently; and slowly reconstructed the world in which they lived. Beautifully written, Fowler’s memoir reveals what she eventually learned: of the perils and harships of submarine service in wartime, of the tragic irony of how her father’s sub was probably lost, and of the long-term damage experienced by the families of those who do not come home from war.

About the Author

Mary Lee Coe Fowler is a writer and teacher of English and ESL living in Maine. Author of Growing with Community Gardening, her work has appeared in Other Voices, Mother Earth News, and Bloomsbury Review.