How long will it take for a submarine at the bottom of the ranking to become the best in its fleet? A couple of years, right? Well, incredibly L. David Marquet spent only less than a year to achieve this magnificent and outstanding feat.

Santa Fe is the submarine at the core of this story. Before Marquet took command, she ranked bottom in the whole of the US Navy’s nuclear attack submarine fleet. For a significant period of time, its negative reputation preceded her and was known instead for her sloppy and unprofessional crewmen. Worse yet, during its prospective commanding officer training, Santa Fe was used as an example of how not to manage a crew, an antithesis of what the commanders strived for, with the Santa Fe really a lost cause. This was what Marquet had to precisely deal with.