The Cruel Sea (book)
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Cruel Sea is a 1951 novel by Nicholas Monsarrat. It follows the lives of a group of Royal Navy sailors fighting the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II. Initially the scene of the action is the fictitious Flower-class corvette HMS Compass Rose, escorting convoys in the North Atlantic. Sunk by a U-boat in 1943, most of the crew die in the freezing waters, but a few officers and sailors survive. Some are assigned to the River-class frigate HMS Saltash and help to win the battle for the Allies.
The novel, based on the author's own experience of commanding a corvette in the North Atlantic in World War II, gives a matter-of-fact but nonetheless moving portrayal of ordinary men learning to fight and survive in a violent and exhausting battle against the elements and a ruthless enemy.
The action commences in 1939. Lieutenant-Commander George Erickson, after service in the Merchant Navy, is recalled to the Royal Navy and given command of HMS Compass Rose, a newly-built corvette intended for convoy escort duties. His officers are portrayed as being mostly newly-commissioned and without sea-going experience, especially the two new Sub-Lieutenants, Lockhart and Ferraby. Only Erickson, the First Lieutenant James Bennett and some of the Petty Officers are in any way experienced.
Despite these initial disadvantages, the ship and crew work up a routine and gain experience. Bennett, a drunken and foul-mouthed disciplinarian, leaves the ship for health reasons, and the junior officers are able to mature.
The crew cross the Atlantic many times on escort duty. They are nearly sunk several times and eventually capture the surviving crew of one German submarine. They are torpedoed and forced to abandon ship. Ericson and Lockhart survive this ordeal, but most of the crew do not.
Erickson, now promoted to Commmander and his newly-promoted First Officer, Lieutenant-Commander Lockhart, take command of a new ship, HMS Saltash, and they continue the monotonous but vital duty of convoy escort.
As the war ends, the ship returns to port, as a guard to several German submarines that have surrendered.
The novel was later made into a film.
