This is a vivid, minute-by-minute account of one of the worst shipwrecks in naval history. Edward Beach's father commanded the Memphis, one of the largest battle cruisers built by the U.S. Navy up to that timebigger and faster than a battleship. The Memphis (originally Tennessee) was demolished by monstrous tsunami waves in Santo Domingo Harbor in August 1916, killing forty-three sailors, and Beach Jr. literally grew up with the tragedy and its effects, which are as profound today as they were eighty years ago.