![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/files\/2012\/02\/Searls_Hank.jpg\")
<\/a>by C. Herbert Gilliland <\/em>(2000)<\/p>\nSEARLS, HENRY HUNT “HANK,” JR. (1922-2017). Novelist and author of nonfiction and short fiction, Hank Searls was born in San Francisco 10 August 1922. Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1944 with the wartime-accelerated class of 1945, he remained an active-duty naval officer until 1954. He served in the Pacific as a gunnery officer on U.S.S. Washington<\/em> and later with air photo reconnaissance squadrons mapping Labrador and Newfoundland. Indeed, it was at 20,000 feet in a B-24 flying over Newfoundland that Searls began writing, initially detective and aviation short fiction.<\/p>\n His thrillers often involve aviation or aquatic themes; he wrote novelizations of the movies Jaws 2<\/em> (1978) and Jaws: The Revenge<\/em> (1971). Kataki<\/em> (1987) fictionalizes George Bush’s World War II experiences as a navy pilot in the Pacific. Also set in World War II, The Hero Ship<\/em> (1969) involves an American carrier heavily damaged by kamikazes, inspired by the near sinking of the U.S.S. Franklin<\/em>, which Searls witnessed. In the early 1970s Searls and his wife sailed the South Pacific, a voyage he made use of in Overboard<\/em> (1977), where a man and wife try to resolve relational differences while sailing the South Pacific. Sounding<\/em> (1982) is a remarkable modern counterpart to Moby-Dick<\/em> (1851), with a whale-protagonist as a thoroughly developed character yet still “very like a whale.”<\/p>\n Perhaps Searls’ best-known book is the nonfiction The Lost Prince: Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy<\/em> (1969), about the Kennedy brother whose plane was shot down over France on a special mission during World War II.<\/p>\n Jaws 2<\/em> (1978)<\/p>\n Archive.org<\/a><\/p>\n Jaws: The Revenge<\/em> (1971)<\/p>\n Archive.org<\/a><\/p>\n The Hero Ship<\/em> (1969) <\/p>\n Archive.org<\/a><\/p>\n Overboard<\/em> (1977)<\/p>\n Archive.org<\/a> Sounding<\/em> (1982)<\/p>\n Archive.org<\/a> The Lost Prince: Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy<\/em> (1969)<\/p>\n Archive.org<\/a><\/p>\n keywords: white, male<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by C. Herbert Gilliland (2000) SEARLS, HENRY HUNT “HANK,” JR. (1922-2017). Novelist and author of nonfiction and short fiction, Hank Searls was born in San Francisco 10 August 1922. Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1944 with the wartime-accelerated Continue reading
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