The Tiger Cruise is a novel about a Los Angeles Class nuclear attack submarine, the USS Woodbridge, which leaves Norfolk on a routine two day tiger cruise.
The tiger cruise is a navy tradition whereby family and friends are invited to sail aboard a naval vessel to get first hand experience of navy tradition at sea. After the Woodbridge embarks, a large earthquake strikes in the mid-Atlantic and, for the first time in recorded history, large tsunamis strike the East Coast all but destroying the naval base at Norfolk.
Iraq, lying in wait for the opportunity to strike back at America, deploys a mini-nuclear submarine loaded with lethal anthrax toward the shores of America. The Navy, crippled by the large tidal waves that struck the coast, calls on the Woodbridge to seek and destroy the Iraqi invaders.
The Woodbridge, having left a third of its crew behind to accommodate 14 civilians ranging in age from 10 to 72 and its nuclear reactor and sonar damaged by the quake, answers the call. Only one ship can stop them in a race for the coast.