Edward Ellsberg

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1891, Edward Ellsberg studied at Yale and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1914. He served as a U.S. Navy officer and became widely known for his skill in salvage engineering, especially after leading the difficult effort to raise the submarine S-51 in the 1920s.

Ellsberg later took on other major rescue and recovery operations, including work connected to Pearl Harbor and wartime ports. Alongside his naval career, he became a popular writer who turned technical and dangerous work into accessible stories for general readers, often blending firsthand detail with a strong sense of drama.

He published many books, and his memoir of the S-51 salvage, On the Bottom, was adapted into the film Hell Below. Ellsberg died in 1983, leaving a reputation as both an accomplished naval engineer and a gifted storyteller of the sea.