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Title: The Cruel Sea (Classics of Naval Literature Series) by Nicholas Monsarrat ISBN: 0-87021-055-6 Publisher: Naval Inst Pr Pub. Date: 01 November, 1988 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $32.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (40 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Man versus the sea - the real war
Comment: The Cruel Sea is perhaps the finest novel written out of World War II. It is drawn on the actual service in the Royal Navy of the author. It is the story of two ships, maybe 200 men, German submarines and the constant relentless ocean. Even when there is no combat action, the sea is always there in all its forms - just waiting for a small defect to occurr and then it will claim another victim - be it man or ship.
The sailors of the Compass Rose are a dramatic cross section. The captain is a reservist from the merchant navy while his officers are all volunteers from the civilian sector. One officer's only sea going experience is crossing the channel in a small yacht with a one woman crew. Not the best of material.
The crew is even more diverse. The senior ratings, coxswain, signalman, engineer and several others, are all professional Royal Navy and it is one these men the captain will lean the most. The remainder of the crew is drawn from all walks of life from clerks to vet assistants. Together they are all molded into a working crew.
The contacts with the German submarines are numerous but the end result is disappointing to some in that only two submarines are sunk between the two ships. Lots of survivors are pulled from the sea though as the submarines whittle away at the convoys chugging across the sea.
One gets a sense of the unending grind that the men endure as the ships make thier rounds from Liverpool to New York with a side trip to Russia for variety. Even shore time is not enjoyed as the local Liverpool area is pounded by German bombers and wives and girlfriends are not willing to endure the constant seperation.
Compass Rose is sunk and the crew, once more, is held together by the captain. Some men are heros and die a heros death and others are simply freightened men trying to stay alive which few do. It is a sobering time for the survivors as they look back at their life in Compass Rose.
The captain and one officer move on to another ship and finish the war in her. Again, it is a return to the grind of fighting the sea and occassionally fighting the Germans. One submarine is sunk by the new ship and the war ends.
There is little glory to be earned in this story, rather it is a tale of survival, hanging on to make it through the day or night. Everyone is a hero in this story from the junior sailor to the captain. It is a story that is being remembered less and less as the survivors of World War II diminish in numbers. It is a story to be read and remembered - when there was no array of electronic weapons and nuclear energy to draw upon to destroy an enemy; rather it was skill, patience, persistance and a willingness to endure that saw a successful outcome from a combat between corvette and submarine. Sometimes the corvette won and sometimes the submarine won. Many times it was a draw.
I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the war at sea during World War II. It should be in every naval officer's personal library regardless of nationality. Once read, it should never be forgotten.
Rating: 5
Summary: Totally involving reading from first page to last.
Comment: The late Nicholas Monsarrat's The Cruel Sea (originally published in 1951) is a powerful and riveting novel of maritime endurance and daring set in the North Atlantic during World War II. Carefully scripted and written, the reader is drawn into this story of the British ships Compass Rose and Saltash, and their desperate cat-and-mouse game on the high seas with Nazi U-boats. This fine trade paperback edition from Burford Books will introduce a whole new generation of action/adventure enthusiasts to a truly skilled and engaging writer whose ability to involve the reader from first page to last is rarely equaled and never surpassed.
Rating: 5
Summary: Misplaced Death
Comment: Andrew Mendelson's review mentions a "misplaced death". He misses the point it was as un-necessary and as useless as many in the war - and that is one of the points of this classic war novel. Monserrat writes well about the sea because he was at sea and this story is one of his strongest because he tells it from the point of view of someone who witnessed it for real.
The Cruel Sea is an extensive fictionalising, reworking and fleshing out of his wartime short stories "HM Corvette, East Coast Corvette, Corvette Command", published during the war when it was quite clear he did not expect to survive the Battle of the Atlantic on which the bulk of the Cruel Sea is based. The Cruel Sea is taughtly drawn, superbly observed and records the transition from amateur civilians into trained professional killers with all the physical, and emotional casualites that were incurred along the way.
The 1953 movie (also available on Amazon) is also a good adaption of the tale.
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Title: Three Corvettes by Nicholas Monsarrat ISBN: 0304354449 Publisher: Sterling Publishing Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea by Robert K. Massie ISBN: 0679456716 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War by Robert K. Massie ISBN: 0345375564 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1992 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Run Silent, Run Deep (Classics of Naval Literature) by Edward L. Beach ISBN: 0870215574 Publisher: Naval Institute Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1986 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: The Kappillan of Malta by Nicholas Monsarrat ISBN: 0304358444 Publisher: Cassell Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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