Crikey - What a harrowing read!
I picked this book up second hand in a charity shop for 50p. I grabbed it only because it was a MacLean novel that I had not read before. It is an early edition and at the time I did not realise that it was MacLean's first novel.
The book is based on his own naval experiences on the awful Arctic Convoys to Russia in the Second World WAr. I can only hope that his own war was not as terrifying and doomed as the events of this novel.
As the title might suggest, the novel followed the course of a voyage by the cruiser HMS Ulysses [a fictional ship] as it escorts a convoy of merchant ships from Iceland to Russia. It concentrates on the ship and its men - other vessels, people and aircraft are there in supporting roles only and rarely get much mention unless they impact directly on HMS Ulysses.
The ship is very well described. The weapons and abilities of the ship's radar etc are very well documented - certainly good enough for any naval buff to feel that they are getting a clear description of what it was like on such a ship. The characters of the men - and they are all men - in the book are very well drawn. A couple of them might veer towards cardboard cut outs, but by and large the men are strong and believable figures.
Of course, we all know that the Arctic Convoys were awful. During the war my grandmother was a newly married young mum. Because her house had a spare bedroom they often had homeless waifs and strays billetted on them. I remember she once told me about a merchant ship captain that they had stay with them for a few weeks after his home in some dock city had been bombed. This captain went on an Arctic convoy once. Grandma said that he told her that the Germans were the least of his worries - it was the sea and the weather that were the real enemies. And this book backs that up with its vivid description of a terrible storm at sea. Mind you, if the convoys were as bad as this book makes them out to have been, it is a wonder that anyone survived at all.
A great war novel, by a great writer.
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