On Sept. 14, 1948, the Leicester, a former Liberty ship of the ill-starred "Sam" series (so named after Uncle Sam) found herself several hundred miles at sea due east of Cape Cod, bound empty and in ballast from London to New York. At this point she ran into a great cyclonic storm, known only as Hurricane VII on weathermen's maps of that year…. Within hours the ship was wallowing helplessly in enormous seas, canted at the almost unbelievable angle of 70 degrees. Yet against all odds the Leicester refused to go down. Two days later all aboard were taken off by an American and an Argentine freighter. The Liberty, lying on her side, was allowed to drift away, doomed, as it seemed, at any moment to take her final plunge.

Thus the stage was set for one of the most remarkable salvage operations of all time…. How this operation was carried...