Cabot Station

A glamour project 30 years ago, Cabot Station--an undersea sonar surveillance outpost in the North Atlantic--has seen its role guarding against missile sub attacks diminished by spy satellites and the emergence of glasnost. But a mystery submarine is detected and then, as Soviet subs bend every effort to prevent investigation, disaster strikes the station. Its crew is trapped on the ocean floor during an Atlantic storm, and commander Alfonso Madiera has to bring his men and women out of a seemingly hopeless situation. Retired U.S. Navy officer Schaill puts modern diving technology to good use in a story whose appeal is enhanced by its unfamiliar setting. His description of Cabot Station's operating routines will please techno-thriller fans, while the rescue mission, pitting human beings against an unforgiving sea, provides narrative excitement. Although the Russian subplot is anticlimactic (the mystery sub has neither technological nor political significance), first novelist Schaill displays promise as a writer of undersea adventure. (Dec.)