One of the greatest maritime salvage operations in US history took place for three years after the devastating attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Raising the Fleet follows the operation on each ship sunk or damaged from refloating to moderate to intensive repairs to putting the ships back into the fleet, with hundreds of period photographs and extensive captions. The three ships not salvaged, the USS Arizona, Oklahoma, and Utah are also covered. Thousands of naval and civilian personnel worked on the ships, including over 20,000 hours of underwater diving.

The authors have used Vice Admiral Homer N. Wallin�s book, Pearl Harbor, Why, How, Fleet Salvage and Final Appraisal for most of the text. A full-color chapter includes the results of an extensive nationwide search for remaining artifacts of the ships that are on display.