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. Captain McLaren’s awards as a Cold War submarine captain include The Distinguished Service Medal – the nation’s highest peacetime award, two Legions of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, four Navy Unit Citations, and promotion to the rank of Captain two years in advance of his contemporaries.

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

Streaming live here on explorers.org, our YouTube Channel, and our Facebook Live — Monday, March 14th at 7:00 pm ET.

RESERVATIONS

This will be an in-person lecture at Explorers Club Headquarters, and we are opening a number of tickets to guests.

In-person tickets are $10 for Members, and $25 for the General Public.

Check-in will begin at 6:00 pm, with a beer and wine reception from 6:00 – 7:00 pm.

To secure a reservation, please email us at [email protected], or call us at 212.628.8383. We will not be accepting walk-ins for this lecture.

To attend in person, we will require proof of vaccination. If you are making reservations, you must submit proof of vaccination to [email protected] by Noon ET on Monday, March 14th. No refunds will be available for those that don’t present adequate proof of vaccination by this deadline. Masks will be required.

Speakers

Alfred Scott McLaren

Captain Alfred Scott McLaren received his Ph.D. in the Physical Geography of the Polar Regions from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1986, an M.Phil. in Polar Studies from Cambridge University in 1982, and an M.S. in International Affairs from George Washington University in 1968. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy with a B.S. in Engineering (1955), the U.S. Naval War College (1968), and the U.S. Navy Major Shore Commanders Course (1978), Captain McLaren was among the first 50 selected by Admiral H.G. Rickover to attend the newly inaugurated Nuclear Power School on 1959.

Captain McLaren is President Emeritus (1996-2000), of The Explorers Club, where he has also served as a vice president, director, and publisher of The Explorers Journal. In 2000, he received The Explorers Club’s Lowell Thomas Medal for Ocean Exploration, and in 2012, The Explorers Club’s highest honor, The Explorers Medal, for “his extraordinary contributions to Arctic exploration and deep-sea research, including the first survey of the entire Siberian Continental Shelf.”

As a naval officer from 1955 to 1981, a veteran of more than 20 Cold War submarine operations, Captain McLaren made three Arctic expeditions on nuclear attack submarines, one on board the USS Seadragon (SSN-584) during the first submerged transit of the Northwest Passage during the summer of 1960; two others on the USS Queenfish (SSN-651): a Davis Strait cruise during the winter of 1967, and a North Pole expedition during the summer of 1970 that included the first survey under ice of the entire Siberian Continental Shelf (5,200 km). He commanded the Queenfish during the latter expedition and for a total of four years. He was subsequently honored, in 1983, with the Socíeté de Geographie de Paris’ Silver Medal for Polar Exploration and La Medaille de la Ville De Paris (Echelon Argent).