Captain Alfred Scott McLaren served as Commander of the USS Queenfish (SSN 651) from September 1969 to May 1973-the very height of the Cold War. As commander, McLaren led at least six major clandestine operations, including the first-ever exploration of the entire Siberian Continental Shelf, a perilous voyage detailed in his previous book Unknown Waters.

Emergency Deep: Cold War Missions of a Submarine Commander conveys the entire spectrum of Captain McLaren's experiences commanding the USS Queenfish mainly in waters of the Russian Far East and also off Vietnam. This book is a riveting and deeply human story that illuminates the intensity and pressures of commanding a nuclear attack submarine in some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable.