Scope and Content Note
The papers of Edward Ellsberg (1891-1983) span the years from 1891 to 2008, with the bulk of the material dating from 1926 to 1998. Ellsberg earned the reputation as one of the United States Navy’s premier experts on salvage operations and deep-sea rescue work. The collection, largely contained in notebooks, documents Ellsberg’s career as an officer in the United States Navy, his activities as a consulting engineer, and his authorship of articles and popular books relating to his salvage exploits while in the Navy and fictional writings about maritime topics. Also present are files relating to a 1998 biography about Ellsberg entitled Salvage Man: Edward Ellsberg and the U.S. Navy by John Doughty Alden, a few writings by Ellsberg’s wife, Lucy Buck Ellsberg, and correspondence of Edward Ellsberg Pollard, grandson of Ellsberg, regarding Ellsberg. The collection includes correspondence, memoranda, lectures, articles, book drafts, short stories, play drafts, radio scripts, notes, military papers, patents, notes, digital files, newspaper clippings, and printed matter. The papers are in English and are arranged as follows: notebooks, Salvage Man John Doughty Alden file, writings by Edward Ellsberg, and writings by Lucy Buck Ellsberg.
The notebooks are arranged by number and therein by topic or type of material. Documented in the notebooks are Ellsberg’s two tours of duty in the navy (1914-1926 and 1941-1951). Topics featured are his endeavors in solving the ventilation problems in 1924 of the steamer Leviathan while serving at the New York Naval Shipyard, in New York, New York, his successful salvage of the submarine S-51 in 1926, and his service during World War II at Mits'iwa in Eritrea, North Africa, and Normandy. During the Normandy invasion, Ellsberg used his expertise to create artificial harbors to facilitate the movement of supplies and troops. Other notebooks include files relating to his work as an engineering consultant, patents relating to his development of salvage equipment, his lectures, and his work as an author. Notebooks one through five, twenty-one, forty-five, and part of number seven, were not received by the Library.
Most of the notebooks, however, pertain to Ellsberg’s articles, books, short stories, book reviews, and correspondence about his writings. Books featured are On the Bottom (Ellsberg’s non-fiction account of the raising of the S-51), Under the Red Sea, No Banners, No Bugles, and The Far Shore (three non-fiction books about Ellsberg’s World War II service). Also present in notebooks numbered fifty-nine through sixty-two are drafts and correspondence about John Doughty Alden's biography Salvage Man: Edward Ellsberg and the U.S. Navy.
Other files complimenting the Salvage Man notebooks are paper and digital files of Ellsberg's biographer, John Doughty Alden. Alden gave his paper and digital files to Edward Ellsberg Pollard. Alden's papers include drafts, research files, and digital files that he used to write the biography and are filed under Salvage Man John Doughty Alden file. The digital files are word processing files received on five and a quarter inch disks. They include articles by Alden (based on his research for the biography prior to its publication), book drafts, and research material. Research material in the digital files consists mainly of notes, interview transcripts, outlines, and lists. The paper research files are larger and more substantive than the digital research files.
The majority of Ellsberg's book drafts, handwritten and typed, are filed near the end of the collection under writings by Edward Ellsberg. Papers pertaining to his fictional works include: Captain Paul (about John Paul Jones), Thirty Fathoms Deep (about a sunken submarine), and Pigboats (the basis for the movie Hell Below). Non-fiction works represented in Ellsberg's writings are Men Under the Sea (a collection of salvage stories), Passport for Jennifer (Ellsberg’s endeavors to bring a young British orphan to the United States), On the Bottom (the salvage of the S-51), and those relating to his World War II service (previously mentioned in the notebooks). The writings also include drafts of plays, radio scripts, and short stories by Edward Ellsberg. Also included in the collection are a few writings by Ellsberg's wife, Lucy Buck Ellsberg. Pollard's correspondence about his grandfather is scattered throughout the notebooks, although notebook number sixty-three is exclusively such correspondence.