On Monday, August 30, 1920, the S-Five, the newest member of the U.S. Navy`s fleet of submarines, departs Boston on her first cruise -- to Baltimore for a recruiting appearance at the end of the week. Two days later, as part of a routine test of the submarine`s ability to crash dive, her crew`s failure to close a faulty valve sends seventy-five tons of seawater blasting in. Before the valve can be jury-rigged shut, the S-Five sits precariously on the ocean floor under 180 feet of water. Her electrical system is shut down, her radio too weak to transmit, and one drive motor is inoperable -- and, because of a last-minute course change, the sub has gone down in a part of the Atlantic deliberately selected because it is well outside any regularly trafficked sea lanes. Rescue by a passing ship is virtually impossible. No one expects them in Baltimore for another two days. And forty hours worth of air is all they have left. The S-Fives are on their own....UNDER PRESSURE is the story of the thirty-six-hour-long ordeal of the crew of the S-Five. It is a story of the courage, endurance, and incredible resourcefulness of the entire forty-man crew....