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The Cruel Sea
The Cruel Sea is a 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.
The novel, based on the experience of commanding a corvette in the North Atlantic in World War II, gives a matter-of-fact but moving portrayal of ordinary men learning to fight and survive in a violent, exhausting battle against the elements and a ruthless enemy.
The novel, based on the experience of commanding a corvette in the North Atlantic in World War II, gives a matter-of-fact but moving portrayal of ordinary men learning to fight and survive in a violent, exhausting battle against the elements and a ruthless enemy.
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First published June 15, 1951
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About the author
Nicholas Monsarrat
90 books89 followersBorn on Rodney Street in Liverpool, Monsarrat was educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Cambridge. He intended to practise law. The law failed to inspire him, however, and he turned instead to writing, moving to London and supporting himself as a freelance writer for newspapers while writing four novels and a play in the space of five years (1934–1939). He later commented in his autobiography that the 1931 Invergordon Naval Mutiny influenced his interest in politics and social and economic issues after college.
Though a pacifist, Monsarrat served in World War II, first as a member of an ambulance brigade and then as a member of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). His lifelong love of sailing made him a capable naval officer, and he served with distinction in a series of small warships assigned to escort convoys and protect them from enemy attack. Monsarrat ended the war as commander of a frigate, and drew on his wartime experience in his postwar sea stories. During his wartime service, Monsarrat claimed to have seen the ghost ship Flying Dutchman while sailing the Pacific, near the location where the young King George V had seen her in 1881.
Resigning his wartime commission in 1946, Monsarrat entered the diplomatic service. He was posted at first to Johannesburg, South Africa and then, in 1953, to Ottawa, Canada. He turned to writing full-time in 1959, settling first on Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, and later on the Mediterranean island of Gozo (Malta).
Monsarrat's first three novels, published in 1934–1937 and now out of print, were realistic treatments of modern social problems informed by his leftist politics. His fourth novel and first major work, This Is The Schoolroom, took a different approach. The story of a young, idealistic, aspiring writer coming to grips with the "real world" for the first time, it is at least partly autobiographical.
The Cruel Sea (1951), Monsarrat's first postwar novel, is widely regarded as his finest work, and is the only one of his novels that is still widely read. Based on his own wartime service, it followed the young naval officer Keith Lockhart through a series of postings in corvettes and frigates. It was one of the first novels to depict life aboard the vital, but unglamorous, "small ships" of World War II—ships for which the sea was as much a threat as the Germans. Monsarrat's short-story collections H.M.S. Marlborough Will Enter Harbour (1949), and The Ship That Died of Shame (1959) mined the same literary vein, and gained popularity by association with The Cruel Sea.
The similar Three Corvettes (1945 and 1953) comprising H.M. Corvette (set aboard a Flower class corvette in the North Atlantic), East Coast Corvette (as First Lieutenant of HMS Guillemot) and Corvette Command (as Commanding Officer of HMS Shearwater) is actually an anthology of three true-experience stories he published during the war years and shows appropriate care for what the Censor might say. Thus Guillemot appears under the pseudonym Dipper and Shearwater under the pseudonym Winger in the book. H.M. Frigate is similar but deals with his time in command of two frigates. His use of the name Dipper could allude to his formative years when summer holidays were spent with his family at Trearddur Bay. They were members of the famous sailing club based there, and he recounted much of this part of his life in a book My brother Denys. Denys Monserrat was killed in Egypt during the middle part of the war whilst his brother was serving with the Royal Navy. Another tale recounts his bringing his ship into Trearddur Bay during the war for old times' sake.
Monsarrat's more famous novels, notably The Tribe That Lost Its Head (1956) and its sequel Richer Than All His Tribe (1968), drew on his experience in the diplomatic service and make important reference to the colonial experience of Britain in Africa.
Though a pacifist, Monsarrat served in World War II, first as a member of an ambulance brigade and then as a member of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). His lifelong love of sailing made him a capable naval officer, and he served with distinction in a series of small warships assigned to escort convoys and protect them from enemy attack. Monsarrat ended the war as commander of a frigate, and drew on his wartime experience in his postwar sea stories. During his wartime service, Monsarrat claimed to have seen the ghost ship Flying Dutchman while sailing the Pacific, near the location where the young King George V had seen her in 1881.
Resigning his wartime commission in 1946, Monsarrat entered the diplomatic service. He was posted at first to Johannesburg, South Africa and then, in 1953, to Ottawa, Canada. He turned to writing full-time in 1959, settling first on Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, and later on the Mediterranean island of Gozo (Malta).
Monsarrat's first three novels, published in 1934–1937 and now out of print, were realistic treatments of modern social problems informed by his leftist politics. His fourth novel and first major work, This Is The Schoolroom, took a different approach. The story of a young, idealistic, aspiring writer coming to grips with the "real world" for the first time, it is at least partly autobiographical.
The Cruel Sea (1951), Monsarrat's first postwar novel, is widely regarded as his finest work, and is the only one of his novels that is still widely read. Based on his own wartime service, it followed the young naval officer Keith Lockhart through a series of postings in corvettes and frigates. It was one of the first novels to depict life aboard the vital, but unglamorous, "small ships" of World War II—ships for which the sea was as much a threat as the Germans. Monsarrat's short-story collections H.M.S. Marlborough Will Enter Harbour (1949), and The Ship That Died of Shame (1959) mined the same literary vein, and gained popularity by association with The Cruel Sea.
The similar Three Corvettes (1945 and 1953) comprising H.M. Corvette (set aboard a Flower class corvette in the North Atlantic), East Coast Corvette (as First Lieutenant of HMS Guillemot) and Corvette Command (as Commanding Officer of HMS Shearwater) is actually an anthology of three true-experience stories he published during the war years and shows appropriate care for what the Censor might say. Thus Guillemot appears under the pseudonym Dipper and Shearwater under the pseudonym Winger in the book. H.M. Frigate is similar but deals with his time in command of two frigates. His use of the name Dipper could allude to his formative years when summer holidays were spent with his family at Trearddur Bay. They were members of the famous sailing club based there, and he recounted much of this part of his life in a book My brother Denys. Denys Monserrat was killed in Egypt during the middle part of the war whilst his brother was serving with the Royal Navy. Another tale recounts his bringing his ship into Trearddur Bay during the war for old times' sake.
Monsarrat's more famous novels, notably The Tribe That Lost Its Head (1956) and its sequel Richer Than All His Tribe (1968), drew on his experience in the diplomatic service and make important reference to the colonial experience of Britain in Africa.
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January 6, 2021
“[T]hat was the way the war was going; the individual had to retreat or submerge, the simple unfeeling pair of hands must come to the fore. The emphasis was now on the tireless machine of war; men were parts of this machine, and so they must remain, till they fulfilled their function or wore out. If, in the process, they did wear out, it was bad luck on the men – but not bad luck on the war, which had had its money’s worth out of them. The hateful struggle, to be effective, demanded one hundred percent from many millions of individual people; death was in this category of demand, and, lower down the list, the cancellation of humanity was an essential element of the total price.”
- Nicholas Monsarrat, The Cruel Sea
The Cruel Sea is the greatest war novel of all time.
Now that I’ve got your attention, let me say that The Cruel Sea is not the greatest war novel of all time.
How can it be? There’s too many classics to choose from. Antiwar masterpieces like All Quiet on the Western Front and Fear. Literary opuses such as The Naked and the Dead and The Thin Red Line. Big, operatic epics like Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Once you start listing them, it’s hard to stop. Catch 22. The Things They Carried. The Red Badge of Courage. Even War and Peace can be classified here. A lot of great literature exists in this genre.
It’s impossible to choose the best. The Cruel Sea, however, deserves to stand among the best. It deserves an audience.
The Cruel Sea was recommended to me (h/t Bevan) after I finished reading Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny. Part of the reason I loved The Caine Mutiny was its sense of authenticity. In its minutely detailed depiction of life aboard a rusting old minesweeper, I felt like Wouk had created something real. That is certainly the case here. Monsarrat served in the Royal Navy during World War II, and has a grasp of all the granular details of life aboard ship. The particularity is mesmerizing.
The Cruel Sea tells the story of a corvette called the HMS Compass Rose. A corvette was a small warship tasked with escorting convoys across the Atlantic Ocean. It was an extremely dangerous job – at one point, the U-Boats almost strangled Great Britain – and it came with little glory. Monsarrat follows the Compass Rose and her crew as they head out to sea to battle Nazi U-Boats and storms and fatigue and boredom and tension. The Cruel Sea is divided into seven chapters, one for each year of Great Britain’s war. The first chapter is set in 1939, the last in 1945, giving it an ambitious scope. (The Cruel Sea weighs in at 510 pages; the last couple chapters, covering the period when the Allies had practically won the war, are far shorter than earlier ones).
The thing that separates The Cruel Sea from other war novels is its inspired specificity. The Compass Rose is a small ship, and you get to know every inch of her. She has a very particular job, and you get to understand every bit of it. There are no panoramic scenes of splendid battle; there is not an ongoing cat-and-mouse game with a sneaky U-Boat captain, ala The Enemy Below. Instead, The Cruel Sea demonstrates that a lot of war is drudgery, it is waiting for something to happen, it is being afraid. There are some big set pieces, but those are few and far between. Most of the time, the Compass Rose is on the periphery of the action. A witness as often as a participant. The men aboard her are trying to do their jobs, not wrestling with the larger, existential implications of warfare. This feels accurate. It creates an overall sensation of verisimilitude.
To tell this tale, Monsarrat utilizes an omniscient third-person narrator, reminiscent of Len Deighton’s Bomber (another great and underrated war novel). It is a godlike point of view that allows him to give us the perspective and thoughts of each and every character. I found the tone to be utterly fascinating. The narrative feels like the observations of a god who can see everything at once, but cannot intervene. The writing is dispassionate, but not indifferent. Monsarrat is able to create incredible emotional force by remaining a bit detached, by describing what is happening without directing you how to feel.
Monsarrat’s characterizations are excellent. The men aboard the Compass Rose are drawn with incredible precision. There are simply too many for Monsarrat to create deep psychological portraits. However, he is able to give each man enough personality and back-story to make him memorable. The two leading actors are Ericson, the commander, and his chief subordinate, Lockhart. Ericson is the veteran, who knows what must be done and struggles with the weight of his responsibility. Lockhart is the newcomer who must learn or die. The burgeoning father-son, mentor-mentee relationship between these two is a central dramatic concern. But by no means is it the only one. The sprawling cast list encompasses men (and a few women) of every rank and rating, giving us a variety of viewpoints on the war. There are competent men, and incompetent men; brave men and cowards; good guys and jerks. Monsarrat is incredibly compassionate towards them all, as he watches them work and struggle and sometimes die. Even though the narrator keeps a certain emotional distance, a powerful intimacy is created by sheer dint of the fact that the narrator is all-knowing. Death comes to many, and it is a testament to the efficacy of this style that these moments were quietly powerful.
The Cruel Sea is not overly graphic or gratuitous. There is little cursing. There are no depictions of sexual activity. (Though women on shore cuckolding their men is a persistent leitmotif). There is violence, to be sure, but it is not fetishized. Rather than appealing to our baser interests in sex and bloodshed (which, frankly, is usually what I’m looking for), Monsarrat delivers the goods by punctuating the doldrums of convoy duty with wonderful vignettes.
There is, for instance, a surface battle with a submarine:
There is also a moment when the Compass Rose discovers a lifeboat floating alone on the sea, a single dead man inside, sitting at the rudder:
And there is a scene aboard a torpedoed ship, with men trapped below:
Monsarrat does not make any explicit attempt at universality. He does not try to extrapolate the experiences of the men of the Compass Rose. He cannot, really, since their actual experiences are very specific to themselves and their duties. And yet, by focusing so tightly on this core group, and in refusing to abandon that focus, The Cruel Sea acquires a kind of organic universality without any conscious effort at all. Monsarrat doesn’t have to lecture on the waste, wantonness, and exhaustion of war, because he’s been showing it to you all along.
- Nicholas Monsarrat, The Cruel Sea
The Cruel Sea is the greatest war novel of all time.
Now that I’ve got your attention, let me say that The Cruel Sea is not the greatest war novel of all time.
How can it be? There’s too many classics to choose from. Antiwar masterpieces like All Quiet on the Western Front and Fear. Literary opuses such as The Naked and the Dead and The Thin Red Line. Big, operatic epics like Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Once you start listing them, it’s hard to stop. Catch 22. The Things They Carried. The Red Badge of Courage. Even War and Peace can be classified here. A lot of great literature exists in this genre.
It’s impossible to choose the best. The Cruel Sea, however, deserves to stand among the best. It deserves an audience.
The Cruel Sea was recommended to me (h/t Bevan) after I finished reading Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny. Part of the reason I loved The Caine Mutiny was its sense of authenticity. In its minutely detailed depiction of life aboard a rusting old minesweeper, I felt like Wouk had created something real. That is certainly the case here. Monsarrat served in the Royal Navy during World War II, and has a grasp of all the granular details of life aboard ship. The particularity is mesmerizing.
The Cruel Sea tells the story of a corvette called the HMS Compass Rose. A corvette was a small warship tasked with escorting convoys across the Atlantic Ocean. It was an extremely dangerous job – at one point, the U-Boats almost strangled Great Britain – and it came with little glory. Monsarrat follows the Compass Rose and her crew as they head out to sea to battle Nazi U-Boats and storms and fatigue and boredom and tension. The Cruel Sea is divided into seven chapters, one for each year of Great Britain’s war. The first chapter is set in 1939, the last in 1945, giving it an ambitious scope. (The Cruel Sea weighs in at 510 pages; the last couple chapters, covering the period when the Allies had practically won the war, are far shorter than earlier ones).
The thing that separates The Cruel Sea from other war novels is its inspired specificity. The Compass Rose is a small ship, and you get to know every inch of her. She has a very particular job, and you get to understand every bit of it. There are no panoramic scenes of splendid battle; there is not an ongoing cat-and-mouse game with a sneaky U-Boat captain, ala The Enemy Below. Instead, The Cruel Sea demonstrates that a lot of war is drudgery, it is waiting for something to happen, it is being afraid. There are some big set pieces, but those are few and far between. Most of the time, the Compass Rose is on the periphery of the action. A witness as often as a participant. The men aboard her are trying to do their jobs, not wrestling with the larger, existential implications of warfare. This feels accurate. It creates an overall sensation of verisimilitude.
To tell this tale, Monsarrat utilizes an omniscient third-person narrator, reminiscent of Len Deighton’s Bomber (another great and underrated war novel). It is a godlike point of view that allows him to give us the perspective and thoughts of each and every character. I found the tone to be utterly fascinating. The narrative feels like the observations of a god who can see everything at once, but cannot intervene. The writing is dispassionate, but not indifferent. Monsarrat is able to create incredible emotional force by remaining a bit detached, by describing what is happening without directing you how to feel.
Monsarrat’s characterizations are excellent. The men aboard the Compass Rose are drawn with incredible precision. There are simply too many for Monsarrat to create deep psychological portraits. However, he is able to give each man enough personality and back-story to make him memorable. The two leading actors are Ericson, the commander, and his chief subordinate, Lockhart. Ericson is the veteran, who knows what must be done and struggles with the weight of his responsibility. Lockhart is the newcomer who must learn or die. The burgeoning father-son, mentor-mentee relationship between these two is a central dramatic concern. But by no means is it the only one. The sprawling cast list encompasses men (and a few women) of every rank and rating, giving us a variety of viewpoints on the war. There are competent men, and incompetent men; brave men and cowards; good guys and jerks. Monsarrat is incredibly compassionate towards them all, as he watches them work and struggle and sometimes die. Even though the narrator keeps a certain emotional distance, a powerful intimacy is created by sheer dint of the fact that the narrator is all-knowing. Death comes to many, and it is a testament to the efficacy of this style that these moments were quietly powerful.
The Cruel Sea is not overly graphic or gratuitous. There is little cursing. There are no depictions of sexual activity. (Though women on shore cuckolding their men is a persistent leitmotif). There is violence, to be sure, but it is not fetishized. Rather than appealing to our baser interests in sex and bloodshed (which, frankly, is usually what I’m looking for), Monsarrat delivers the goods by punctuating the doldrums of convoy duty with wonderful vignettes.
There is, for instance, a surface battle with a submarine:
The water sluiced and poured from [the sub’s] casings as she rose: great bubbles burst round her conning tower: gouts of oil spread outward from the crushed plating amidships. “Open fire!” shouted Ericson – and for a few moments it was Baker’s chance, and his alone: the two-pounder pom-pom, set just behind the funnel, was the only gun that could be brought to bear. The staccato force of its firing shook the still air, and with a noise and a chain of shock like the punch! punch! punch! of a trip-hammer the red glowing tracer shells began to chase each other low across the water toward the U-boat…
There is also a moment when the Compass Rose discovers a lifeboat floating alone on the sea, a single dead man inside, sitting at the rudder:
The man must have been dead for many days: the bare feet splayed on the floorboards were paper-thin, the hand gripping the tiller was not much more than a claw. The eyes that had seemed to stare so boldly ahead were empty sockets – some sea-bird’s plunder: the face was burnt black by a hundred suns, pinched and shriveled by a hundred bitter nights. The boat had no compass, and no chart: the water barrel was empty, and yawning at the seams. It was impossible to guess how long he had been sailing on that senseless voyage – alone, hopeful in death as in life, but steering directly away from land, which was already a thousand miles astern.
And there is a scene aboard a torpedoed ship, with men trapped below:
[A] few, lucky or unlucky, had raced or crawled for the door, to find it warped and buckled by the explosion, and hopelessly jammed. There was no other way out, except the gaping hole through which the water was now bursting in a broad and furious jet. The shambles that followed were mercifully brief; but until the water quenched the last screams and uncurled the last clawing hands, it was…a paroxysm of despair, terror, and convulsive violence, all in full and dreadful flood, an extreme corner of the human zoo for which there should be no witnesses.
Monsarrat does not make any explicit attempt at universality. He does not try to extrapolate the experiences of the men of the Compass Rose. He cannot, really, since their actual experiences are very specific to themselves and their duties. And yet, by focusing so tightly on this core group, and in refusing to abandon that focus, The Cruel Sea acquires a kind of organic universality without any conscious effort at all. Monsarrat doesn’t have to lecture on the waste, wantonness, and exhaustion of war, because he’s been showing it to you all along.
October 23, 2019
All fiction is said to be autobiographical, and there are few books where this is more apparent than in The Cruel Sea. It was written shortly after the Second World War by an author whose wartime experience on the convoy routes of the North Atlantic closely mirrored those that he portrays. Indeed, the career of Nicholas Monsarrat, both before the war and during it, are virtually identical to that of Lieutenant Lockhart in the novel. As a result, it feels closer to reportage at times than something written to entertain.
This is nautical fiction stripped of the romance and glamour normally associated with the genre, to reveal a plot that is gritty and real. The appalling weather is as much the enemy as the circling German U-boats. It has all the elements that show what war is actually like - the boredom, the exhaustion, the relentlessness and the errors made in equal measure. Some officers are brave, others as bullies; some are dedicated, while others neglect their duty. The journey of the ship’s commanding officer, Ericson, being remorselessly ground down with fatigue and war weariness is particularly poignant.
For these reasons The Cruel Sea is a classic of the period, but it is not an easy read. Some of the incidents portrayed are harrowing. At times the writing style can be dated and may not be to every readers taste. But I urge you to persist. This is an honest portrayal of an unglamorous theatre of the war without which the Allied victory would have been impossible.
This is nautical fiction stripped of the romance and glamour normally associated with the genre, to reveal a plot that is gritty and real. The appalling weather is as much the enemy as the circling German U-boats. It has all the elements that show what war is actually like - the boredom, the exhaustion, the relentlessness and the errors made in equal measure. Some officers are brave, others as bullies; some are dedicated, while others neglect their duty. The journey of the ship’s commanding officer, Ericson, being remorselessly ground down with fatigue and war weariness is particularly poignant.
For these reasons The Cruel Sea is a classic of the period, but it is not an easy read. Some of the incidents portrayed are harrowing. At times the writing style can be dated and may not be to every readers taste. But I urge you to persist. This is an honest portrayal of an unglamorous theatre of the war without which the Allied victory would have been impossible.
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August 2, 2018Bit of a disappointment, one of those books in which I was glad the characters had different names, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to tell them apart, can't really call it a novel because there isn't a plot as such, the title is misleading, the sea isn't cruel, if at the end of the war the surviving ship's crew were celebrating on the beach and then swamped by a freak wave and dragged under to their watery deaths then - ok, the sea would have been cruel, but throughout the book the sea is just the sea . At the beginning there is the sense of that popular trope of ragtag band of no-hopers (including the ship) who come together and are transformed into effective team - you've probably seen that film as many times as you've had hot dinners, maybe more, but it is not really developed. There is throwaway writing instead - on the page on which we learn the the Compass Rose is to be fitted with radar in her refit after two years at war, one officer gets to reflect how he had asked and requested radar and always been denied, but as this was the first time it was mentioned there was no sense of achievement, nor of frustration at the conduct of the war.
Anyhow, the crew come together on a miserable scow of a corvette Compass Rose they are assigned to escort conveys, across the Atlantic to St Johns , Newfoundland, once to Mumansk, once disastrously to Gibraltar , once to New York leading to the usual complaints about the Americans , en-route they also complain about the neutrality of the Irish, and about the French who they suspect for the sake of love would happily change sides, the Dutch and Norwegians are reckoned to be ok though . While at sea the crew's wives play like the mouse when the proverbial cat is absent, as a rule in this book women are fickle or domineering unless they are a WREN , in which case they are also alright, even potentially ideal spouses. . The book was atmospheric, in that it had the atmosphere of a post war British black and white film, though the language was slightly saltier , but if you had heard the expression ' swears like a sailor' and were curious as to what that might entail - this is not the book for you, the language is strikingly mild by modern UK standards - although the first medical emergency they have is a tight foreskin (that is about as salty as it gets though) this an example of the naval tradition of 'swinging the lamp' .
By which time you may be wondering why I was reading this thing that made a barge look elegant in the water - as it happens there is a story, on one occasion when my Father was in hospital - I can't remember what for on this occasion, but the TV wasn't working and he was too tired/or weak to read ( a poor sign) so filled with filial piety like some Roman, I took up this book from the beginning and start to read it aloud, as I read, his eye lids would droop, but when I paused they would flick back open , any how, I read on until I was relived by the arrival of further visitors, allowing me to stand to and take my ease, in my imagination I read a good third of the book on that occasion, coming back to it, it seemed I had got no where near that far through. Books are far, far, far longer when read aloud.
People who like books about men at war and specifically war at sea will like this book, however from any other point of view I'd give it a pass, I suspect that my father would have been disappointed too since the royal navy officers in this book drink gin (and on one occasion each whisky and sherry) while for my father as a veteran of her majesty’s fleet rum drinking was an act of communion and practically obligatory under his roof (though he never went so far as to pipe us in to receive our ration, or to appoint himself rum bos'un in the tradition of the fleet) my sister's claim that she didn't like drinking neat Rum was met with blank incredulity as though a talking horse had told my father that it didn't care for grass or hay. Anyhow it is gin all the way in this book. But since I so enjoyed How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at An Answer I suppose it all balances out.
Anyhow, the crew come together on a miserable scow of a corvette Compass Rose they are assigned to escort conveys, across the Atlantic to St Johns , Newfoundland, once to Mumansk, once disastrously to Gibraltar , once to New York leading to the usual complaints about the Americans , en-route they also complain about the neutrality of the Irish, and about the French who they suspect for the sake of love would happily change sides, the Dutch and Norwegians are reckoned to be ok though . While at sea the crew's wives play like the mouse when the proverbial cat is absent, as a rule in this book women are fickle or domineering unless they are a WREN , in which case they are also alright, even potentially ideal spouses. . The book was atmospheric, in that it had the atmosphere of a post war British black and white film, though the language was slightly saltier , but if you had heard the expression ' swears like a sailor' and were curious as to what that might entail - this is not the book for you, the language is strikingly mild by modern UK standards - although the first medical emergency they have is a tight foreskin (that is about as salty as it gets though) this an example of the naval tradition of 'swinging the lamp' .
By which time you may be wondering why I was reading this thing that made a barge look elegant in the water - as it happens there is a story, on one occasion when my Father was in hospital - I can't remember what for on this occasion, but the TV wasn't working and he was too tired/or weak to read ( a poor sign) so filled with filial piety like some Roman, I took up this book from the beginning and start to read it aloud, as I read, his eye lids would droop, but when I paused they would flick back open , any how, I read on until I was relived by the arrival of further visitors, allowing me to stand to and take my ease, in my imagination I read a good third of the book on that occasion, coming back to it, it seemed I had got no where near that far through. Books are far, far, far longer when read aloud.
People who like books about men at war and specifically war at sea will like this book, however from any other point of view I'd give it a pass, I suspect that my father would have been disappointed too since the royal navy officers in this book drink gin (and on one occasion each whisky and sherry) while for my father as a veteran of her majesty’s fleet rum drinking was an act of communion and practically obligatory under his roof (though he never went so far as to pipe us in to receive our ration, or to appoint himself rum bos'un in the tradition of the fleet) my sister's claim that she didn't like drinking neat Rum was met with blank incredulity as though a talking horse had told my father that it didn't care for grass or hay. Anyhow it is gin all the way in this book. But since I so enjoyed How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at An Answer I suppose it all balances out.
October 12, 2017
The best 2nd World War novel I've read. I felt to be living through those years, sharing all the experiences described – whether at sea on a corvette and then a frigate or on land. Masterly character studies throughout.
I kept thinking of Moby Dick whilst reading this. Both set at sea of course and the various crews are closely observed in each. The capains couldn't be more different - Ahab in Moby Dick and Ericson here. Perhaps it is the fight against the elements and the U Boat (Moby Dick)?
This is so entirely believable it is hard to accept as a work of fiction. The writing is often exquisite.
I've managed to avoid seeing the oft repeated film on TV. I'll now succumb next time it comes around.
I kept thinking of Moby Dick whilst reading this. Both set at sea of course and the various crews are closely observed in each. The capains couldn't be more different - Ahab in Moby Dick and Ericson here. Perhaps it is the fight against the elements and the U Boat (Moby Dick)?
This is so entirely believable it is hard to accept as a work of fiction. The writing is often exquisite.
I've managed to avoid seeing the oft repeated film on TV. I'll now succumb next time it comes around.
May 16, 2013
He loved the sea, though not blindly: it was the cynical, self-contemptuous love of a man for a mistress whom he distrusts profoundly but cannot do without.
This applies equally to the characters in the book and to the author. First Lieutenant Lockhart is clearly based on Monsarrat own experiences in the war, serving on small escort ships for the Atlantic convoys. The account he gives has the flavor and the credibility of a documentary, an authenticity that cannot be faked and that puts Monsarrat at least at the same level as Alistair McLean and Douglas Reeman, who also translated their war experiences in novels.
This is the story - the long and true story - of one ocean, two ships, and about a hundred and fifty men. It is a long story because it deals with a long and brutal battle, the worst of any war. It has two ships because one was sunk, and had to be replaced. It has a hundred and fifty men because that is a manageable number of people to tell a story about. Above all, it is a true story because that is the only kind worth telling.
An ambitious project, trying to cover the whole period of the war, from the early days of 1939 to the last depth charge dropped in 1945. One that is largelly succesful, combining technical details about the ships - small corvettes in the beginning and more powerful frigates in the later stages - with strategies and tactical evaluations of the implications behind the numbers of ships or submarines sunk, and most of all showing the effects on the humans caught in this grinding machine. It takes a special kind of courage to set sail on an enterprise where the statistics show less than half of the ships will make it through. The psychological effects of the invisible foe, coupled with the vicissitudes of weather are best observed on the civilian /reserve personnel called up to the service rather than on the profeesional in the Navy. Some will crack up under pressure, some will find untapped resources of self-discipline, self-confidence and responsibility that will serve them beyond the war years. All of them will have to harden their hearts in order to survive:
At the beginning, there was time for all sort of things - making allowances for people, and joking, and treating people like sensitive human beings, and wondering whether they were happy, and whether they - they liked you or not. But now, now the war doesn't seem to be a matter of men any more, it's just weapons and toughness. There's no margin for humanity left - humanity takes up too much room, it gets in the way of things.
The sea is as much a character as the ships and the people, often a harsher adversary than the submarines, rolling the small corvettes incessantly, freezing the bodies of marooned sailors in a matter of minutes, burning them in the spilled oil from stricken tankers, battering them with howlinh winds and mountainous waves. Yet, the siren call of its majestic beauty will not be denied:
They found that some nights, especially, had a peaceful loveliness that repaid a hundred hours of strain. Sometimes, in sheltered water, when the moon was full, they moved with the convoy past hills outlined against the pricking stars: slipping under the very shadow of these cliffs, their keel divided the phosphorescent water into a gleaming wake that curled away till it was caught and held in the track of the moon.
I read the book for the first time when I was about 16, and dreamed myself one day sailing all these waters. It was an easy five star book at the time. Some of these teenage love affairs should be left alone in order to preserve their aura of romance. As a more world weary and cynical reader, I can't help but notice the often poor sentence structure, the propaganda manifesto quality of some of the passages, the rather nasty comments about the 'dirty, cowardly' French, the 'childish' Americans or the 'treasonous' Irish as oppossed to the wholesome, stoical and disciplined homeboys. The sailors who engaged in convoy escorts do not need to be lionized, their actions speak for themselves, and the book reads best when the author stops editorializing or myth building and limits his presentation to the actual events he probably witnessed. Characterization is also uneven, alternating between truly moving human interest stories and some pretty obvious hero worshipping. Romance is for most of the journey a sad collateral casualty of the war, with relationships either strained by long absences or by the frivolity of those who didn't grapple with death on a daily basis.
I will finish with one of the best moments in the book, more than making up for any perceived false notes: the power of music to solace and to lift up our souls after tragedy. In a probably totally unrelated coincidence, the scene echoes the final scene from L'Amant by Jean Jacques Annaud, with the same composer and the same release of control on emotion:
Myra Hess was playing the piano, and playing Chopin; in the perfect stillness which the audience accorded her, the lovely notes dropped like jewels, exquisitely shaped and strung, sculptures and liquid at the same time, falling straight upon the heart
I think I'll go back to Jack Aubrey for my next maritime adventure.
October 28, 2022
This is good, very good, better than I I had expected. Years ago I had begun listening to this on a BBC broadcast. Such broadcasts are abridged, which is not to my liking!
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat is fiction, but it is based on the author’s own WW2 experiences. For four years, he was stationed in the Atlantic, serving on corvettes and on a frigate. This shows. It is clearly evident that the author writes about what he knows and has experienced firsthand.
In the story we are on board first a corvette and then later a frigate. The timespan is from 1939 into 1945. We see five and a half years of the war. We meet the British Lieutenant-Commander George Ericson and the officers under him. Lockhart, , bears a close resemblance to the author. What do we learn? The moral dilemmas tied to being in command of a ship! We experience the violence, fury and destruction wrought by storms on the sea. We view how the men relate to each other and to the loved ones at home. Ericson’s task is to command ships escorting convoys. This entails dropping sink bombs on attacking submarines. Torpedoes bring down many a ship, along with the men onboard. The death of men and women, close, dear friends and loved ones, is an important theme too. I value this book because it is not merely an exciting adventure tale; it draws a full picture of the emotional and psychological consequences on women and men fighting the war in the Northern Atlantic. We meet both good and bad naval figures from different countries, of different rank and with different backgrounds.
The ending is low-key, and I like this. The book gives readers a glimpse into another aspect of the Second World War. It is a book featuring so-called “fictional characters”, but it draws the true to life reality of the war as it played out for the men stationed on escort ships guarding convoys. I repeat—Monsarrat writes of that which he knows.
I listened to this in Swedish read by Tore Bengtsson. It was clearly read and not hard to follow, but the tone put me off. It felt like it was a man reading for other men. This is kind of hard to explain, but it is the definite feeling I get. Men in the company of other men speak this way. Add the presence of women and the tone changes. The narration I have given three stars.
I am very glad to have read this book. I wasn’t expecting it to have psychological content or such good character portrayal. I have been surprised in a good way. I strongly recommend the book. I really got into the essence of how it was to be Commander Ericson.
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat is fiction, but it is based on the author’s own WW2 experiences. For four years, he was stationed in the Atlantic, serving on corvettes and on a frigate. This shows. It is clearly evident that the author writes about what he knows and has experienced firsthand.
In the story we are on board first a corvette and then later a frigate. The timespan is from 1939 into 1945. We see five and a half years of the war. We meet the British Lieutenant-Commander George Ericson and the officers under him. Lockhart, , bears a close resemblance to the author. What do we learn? The moral dilemmas tied to being in command of a ship! We experience the violence, fury and destruction wrought by storms on the sea. We view how the men relate to each other and to the loved ones at home. Ericson’s task is to command ships escorting convoys. This entails dropping sink bombs on attacking submarines. Torpedoes bring down many a ship, along with the men onboard. The death of men and women, close, dear friends and loved ones, is an important theme too. I value this book because it is not merely an exciting adventure tale; it draws a full picture of the emotional and psychological consequences on women and men fighting the war in the Northern Atlantic. We meet both good and bad naval figures from different countries, of different rank and with different backgrounds.
The ending is low-key, and I like this. The book gives readers a glimpse into another aspect of the Second World War. It is a book featuring so-called “fictional characters”, but it draws the true to life reality of the war as it played out for the men stationed on escort ships guarding convoys. I repeat—Monsarrat writes of that which he knows.
I listened to this in Swedish read by Tore Bengtsson. It was clearly read and not hard to follow, but the tone put me off. It felt like it was a man reading for other men. This is kind of hard to explain, but it is the definite feeling I get. Men in the company of other men speak this way. Add the presence of women and the tone changes. The narration I have given three stars.
I am very glad to have read this book. I wasn’t expecting it to have psychological content or such good character portrayal. I have been surprised in a good way. I strongly recommend the book. I really got into the essence of how it was to be Commander Ericson.
January 9, 2017
There are so many good things to say about this novel. The characters and the situations felt so real. Action, angst, humor, growth—it’s got all the stuff of a great novel. It showed so many aspects of the war at sea—the melding of men into an effective crew, the challenging weather, the u-boats, and the strain the long war put on relationships back home. War brought out the best in some of the men, like Lockhart. The stress was too much for others—yet even some of those men who didn’t quite measure up were good men, trying their best. The author states in the beginning that the story is about two ships, so I knew Compass Rose was going to sink.
My only complaint was that the ending wasn’t quite as good as the beginning and the middle. I never cared as much about the crew of Saltash as I did about the crew of Compass Rose (other than the men who were on both). The action over the last part was a bit like the Battle of the Atlantic . . . it kind of petered out. Even with that, it was definitely worth the read and easily rounds up to five stars.
My only complaint was that the ending wasn’t quite as good as the beginning and the middle. I never cared as much about the crew of Saltash as I did about the crew of Compass Rose (other than the men who were on both). The action over the last part was a bit like the Battle of the Atlantic . . . it kind of petered out. Even with that, it was definitely worth the read and easily rounds up to five stars.
March 9, 2018
I haven't read much fiction about WWII but I was motivated to read this because waaaaaay back in my late teens I read The Master Mariner, by the same author, a kind of Wandering Jew story covering the history of shipping from I can't remember how far back up to the age of oil super-tankers. It was good but frustrating in that Monsarrat died before completing it and most of the 20th Century exists only as a brief outline. This book being much more famous, I picked it up when I saw it reprinted and have finally got round to tackling it.
For those who have seen or heard about a particular incident in the film adaptation, I say now that no seagulls fly backwards over the cruel sea in the book...
Monsarrat notes before the action begins that this is a "long" book. Given that it is fewer than 500p it hardly seems so, but it is three times the length of a more typical novel of its day...and there is no bloating or padding here. It's a compelling tale from the outset and all the way through to the end, which covers the entire period of the war as the Royal Navy attempts to keep the vital supply lines of Merchant Navy traffic protected from the depredations of the German U-boats.
Initially we are introduced to a group of characters who will form the senior officers of a newly built corvette; a ship designed for submarine hunting. The captain is portrayed as a competent and experienced career naval officer. It is interesting how similar the notions of what this competence consists of and how it is displayed are to those given by O'Brian describing Jack Aubrey, a naval captain from the Napoleonic era. It would seem that the technology has changed but the fundamentals of the Royal Navy and the demands of running a ship of war haven't changed, if you can rely on O'Brian's historical portrayal.
The history of WWII in general outline drawn here should seem familiar; losing until the U.S.A drop neutrality, then clawing back on to even terms and after D-Day slowly struggling to victory; it's not really interesting in this regard. What is more interesting is the views espoused by the officers about the war and the contrasting attitudes given to civilian characters.
Ireland comes in for a lambasting; the country is potrayed as contemptible for remaining neutral and benefiting from the vital food and other supplies from North America, guarded by the Royal Navy, whilst at the same time allowing the Nazis to run an espionage base on their territory.
Civilians are largely viewed as soft and lacking dedication, unless they are part of the Merchant Navy. The men of the Royal Navy are mostly a stoically heroic bunch, but not in a propagandist, unrealistic way.
Various views, some cynical, about the motives of the war are espoused. One character suggests that the war is simply about who will dominate Europe; this was of course true: would it be the people who, despite such mass-murders as the bombings of Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, never had genocide in mind, or would it be the perpetrators of the Holocaust?
For those who have seen or heard about a particular incident in the film adaptation, I say now that no seagulls fly backwards over the cruel sea in the book...
Monsarrat notes before the action begins that this is a "long" book. Given that it is fewer than 500p it hardly seems so, but it is three times the length of a more typical novel of its day...and there is no bloating or padding here. It's a compelling tale from the outset and all the way through to the end, which covers the entire period of the war as the Royal Navy attempts to keep the vital supply lines of Merchant Navy traffic protected from the depredations of the German U-boats.
Initially we are introduced to a group of characters who will form the senior officers of a newly built corvette; a ship designed for submarine hunting. The captain is portrayed as a competent and experienced career naval officer. It is interesting how similar the notions of what this competence consists of and how it is displayed are to those given by O'Brian describing Jack Aubrey, a naval captain from the Napoleonic era. It would seem that the technology has changed but the fundamentals of the Royal Navy and the demands of running a ship of war haven't changed, if you can rely on O'Brian's historical portrayal.
The history of WWII in general outline drawn here should seem familiar; losing until the U.S.A drop neutrality, then clawing back on to even terms and after D-Day slowly struggling to victory; it's not really interesting in this regard. What is more interesting is the views espoused by the officers about the war and the contrasting attitudes given to civilian characters.
Ireland comes in for a lambasting; the country is potrayed as contemptible for remaining neutral and benefiting from the vital food and other supplies from North America, guarded by the Royal Navy, whilst at the same time allowing the Nazis to run an espionage base on their territory.
Civilians are largely viewed as soft and lacking dedication, unless they are part of the Merchant Navy. The men of the Royal Navy are mostly a stoically heroic bunch, but not in a propagandist, unrealistic way.
Various views, some cynical, about the motives of the war are espoused. One character suggests that the war is simply about who will dominate Europe; this was of course true: would it be the people who, despite such mass-murders as the bombings of Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, never had genocide in mind, or would it be the perpetrators of the Holocaust?
February 15, 2017
This is an exceptional book of World War 2 and of the sea. With deep authenticity derived from the author's own experiences, and conveyed through unpretentious but powerful prose, the story and characters are brilliantly drawn. Through the initial fitting out of one of the first corvettes, through travails on the high seas, tragedy and small triumph, this is a book that is difficult to put aside.
November 13, 2017
I am an admitted fan of the Age of Fighting Sail genre of literature. I have read all of Patrick O'Brian, Richard Woodman, and slowly working my way through C.S. Forester. So a good sea yarn is likely to catch my eye. Because of the intriguing review of a GR friend (thanks Matt) I went looking for and ordered this book, "The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Monsarrat and I think it is one of the best, maybe the best, sea adventure I have ever read.
Unlike all of my previous reading adventures at sea this one does not take place during the Napoleonic Era but covers England's WWII years from 1939 to 1945. In light of the years involved the book is a bit long but there isn't a single page I would edit out as it is that good. The book is fiction and covers the life of a convoy escort ships in the Royal Navy. Initially it focuses on one small, very small, corvette at the beginning of the war. Unlike my previous reading of naval adventures this tale does not center on the exploits of a heroic captain and his fearless crew of English tars. The author masterfully develops the officers and many of the crew as an entity, a family as it were, engaged in an activity where everyone has their part to play and all play that part well because the others are depending on him. The crew can readily be identified as the author's protagonist at least in the first half of the book.
In a later portion of the book the captain and the first officer become much more the focus and center of the action as the nature of the war has evolved as these two officer note with regret. The familial nature of the ship's crew is altered and the men become more like inanimate parts of an efficient fighting machine bent on the destruction of their enemy. The way the author portrays this evolution of sensitive, humanistic, beings into men that suppress feelings, are unmoved by suffering and death even of their friends and loved ones is quite compelling but there is more.
What really impressed me was the author's portrayal of life at sea during this time and in these convoy situations on the North Atlantic. These convoys were utterly boring, brutally uncomfortable and cold, and indescribably terrifying and the author manages to deliver this life to the reader. I once worked with a man that was in the U.S. Merchant Marine in WWII and what he told me about those voyages was accurately portrayed in this book. My friend described leaving port with scores of other ships in a convoy that might cover 20 miles of ocean. As soon as you left port you were on radio silence and at night you were in complete blackout. In rough seas which were frequent you were riding waves that might be 50 feet or more high and then descending into troughs of these waves. In such conditions you lose sight of the horizon and the visual contact with the other ships. It was not uncommon not to see any other ship in your convoy until your reached your destination. At night in such conditions the disorientation in total darkness is as frightening as the thought of a torpedo attack. You never know if another ship as gotten off course or out of place and may suddenly appear headed directly and unavoidably at your ship. During storms where maintaining agreed courses and speeds was impossible convoys were scattered and the threat of collisions became very real. Of course it was the stray member of a convoy that was the most vulnerable to U-boat attack as well. It was in describing these conditions where the author's talent and his war time naval experience was most evident.
While this is a novel set during WWII there is surprisingly minimal combat action and what there is is fairly one-sided. The nature of submarine warfare seems to defy any notion or idea of a fair fight. U-Boats sneak up on unsuspecting ships and fire their submerged missiles. The target of such an attack usually has no idea of the impending attack until he has been struck and that was frequently too late to either avoid or prepare for. Convoy escorts respond to such attacks or, using new technology, detect the presence of a submarine and start dropping depth charges on the U-boat which has no way to respond once detected. The action in such events in a game of hide and seek requiring cunning and patience, lots of patience. Again, this type of warfare is superbly demonstrated. This book gave me an entirely different and enhanced regard for sailors of this period and for merchant seamen and their sacrifices which are rarely noted but for which England would probably have not survived Hitler's onslaught.
Unlike all of my previous reading adventures at sea this one does not take place during the Napoleonic Era but covers England's WWII years from 1939 to 1945. In light of the years involved the book is a bit long but there isn't a single page I would edit out as it is that good. The book is fiction and covers the life of a convoy escort ships in the Royal Navy. Initially it focuses on one small, very small, corvette at the beginning of the war. Unlike my previous reading of naval adventures this tale does not center on the exploits of a heroic captain and his fearless crew of English tars. The author masterfully develops the officers and many of the crew as an entity, a family as it were, engaged in an activity where everyone has their part to play and all play that part well because the others are depending on him. The crew can readily be identified as the author's protagonist at least in the first half of the book.
In a later portion of the book the captain and the first officer become much more the focus and center of the action as the nature of the war has evolved as these two officer note with regret. The familial nature of the ship's crew is altered and the men become more like inanimate parts of an efficient fighting machine bent on the destruction of their enemy. The way the author portrays this evolution of sensitive, humanistic, beings into men that suppress feelings, are unmoved by suffering and death even of their friends and loved ones is quite compelling but there is more.
What really impressed me was the author's portrayal of life at sea during this time and in these convoy situations on the North Atlantic. These convoys were utterly boring, brutally uncomfortable and cold, and indescribably terrifying and the author manages to deliver this life to the reader. I once worked with a man that was in the U.S. Merchant Marine in WWII and what he told me about those voyages was accurately portrayed in this book. My friend described leaving port with scores of other ships in a convoy that might cover 20 miles of ocean. As soon as you left port you were on radio silence and at night you were in complete blackout. In rough seas which were frequent you were riding waves that might be 50 feet or more high and then descending into troughs of these waves. In such conditions you lose sight of the horizon and the visual contact with the other ships. It was not uncommon not to see any other ship in your convoy until your reached your destination. At night in such conditions the disorientation in total darkness is as frightening as the thought of a torpedo attack. You never know if another ship as gotten off course or out of place and may suddenly appear headed directly and unavoidably at your ship. During storms where maintaining agreed courses and speeds was impossible convoys were scattered and the threat of collisions became very real. Of course it was the stray member of a convoy that was the most vulnerable to U-boat attack as well. It was in describing these conditions where the author's talent and his war time naval experience was most evident.
While this is a novel set during WWII there is surprisingly minimal combat action and what there is is fairly one-sided. The nature of submarine warfare seems to defy any notion or idea of a fair fight. U-Boats sneak up on unsuspecting ships and fire their submerged missiles. The target of such an attack usually has no idea of the impending attack until he has been struck and that was frequently too late to either avoid or prepare for. Convoy escorts respond to such attacks or, using new technology, detect the presence of a submarine and start dropping depth charges on the U-boat which has no way to respond once detected. The action in such events in a game of hide and seek requiring cunning and patience, lots of patience. Again, this type of warfare is superbly demonstrated. This book gave me an entirely different and enhanced regard for sailors of this period and for merchant seamen and their sacrifices which are rarely noted but for which England would probably have not survived Hitler's onslaught.
March 3, 2018
A superb book, as good at depicting ordinary lives as it is at portraying the 'big' heroic moments. Based around a corvette, the Compass Rose, built to escort Atlantic convoys and protect against German u-boat attacks, we meet the men who sail on her from the quiet, steady Captain Ericson, to the newly commissioned officers fresh from their pre-war jobs in banks and newspapers.
There's nothing flashy or 'modern' about this book, it's told in a steady, sober voice, starts at the beginning of the war, ends in 1945, with no parallel narratives, or time-switches - something no contemporary novel seems to be able to do without. And yet for all that this is more passionate, more engaging, and more tension-filled than many a thriller.
Primarily concerned with life at sea, this doesn't completely ignore the home front, but sees it primarily in terms of the impact home lives have on the men at war. As a female reader I never felt excluded from this narrative, made up as it is of overwhelmingly masculine characters, and wasn't hit with technical sea-faring terms or the names of different types of ship body parts... Instead it focuses on the characters, and the intense pressures they're under.
Humane, compassionate, and utterly compelling - by the time I finished this book I felt as emotionally drained as if I'd just survived a voyage on the Rose myself! I don't award five stars easily, but this deserves every one of them.
There's nothing flashy or 'modern' about this book, it's told in a steady, sober voice, starts at the beginning of the war, ends in 1945, with no parallel narratives, or time-switches - something no contemporary novel seems to be able to do without. And yet for all that this is more passionate, more engaging, and more tension-filled than many a thriller.
Primarily concerned with life at sea, this doesn't completely ignore the home front, but sees it primarily in terms of the impact home lives have on the men at war. As a female reader I never felt excluded from this narrative, made up as it is of overwhelmingly masculine characters, and wasn't hit with technical sea-faring terms or the names of different types of ship body parts... Instead it focuses on the characters, and the intense pressures they're under.
Humane, compassionate, and utterly compelling - by the time I finished this book I felt as emotionally drained as if I'd just survived a voyage on the Rose myself! I don't award five stars easily, but this deserves every one of them.
April 9, 2022
I enjoy war stories because they hold the potential for human extremes, and examining extreme situations provides a better perspective on everyday life. Within The Cruel Sea these extremes present themselves as unimaginable situations; situations that humans must live through in order to survive. Situations where every action, every decision, is absolutely right regardless of the judgments that may be imposed after the fact, in a relative calm, or in a comparative sanctuary of safety.
This book focuses on humans that are thrown into war from their peacetime lives. Accountants, bankers, journalists, cargo ship captains, pension seeking peacetime sailors, are all placed in a war that they, as individuals, had very little to do with its inception. From there, the changes in the characters are illustrated through the most extreme of circumstances and the ever-accumulating risk associated with time. Decisions are made and sacrifices are suffered. The enemy becomes transformed from humans with differing points of view into mere objects of resistance: worthy of a hatred that can only be bestowed upon the most inhuman of threats. And the defenders are transformed into machines that are virtually unaware of the hatred that they display.
The book serves to bring to life the historical accounts of the war, but it also opens up parallels that exist in our current lives. In the hear-and-now, stresses are also ever-present and they accumulate with time. We eventually lose our peace-of-mind to a constant and continuing struggle.
Today's economic participants are perpetually at sea and failure may very well be a sort of virtual death. Our livelihood, which is often synonymous with life itself, can be stolen by seemingly inhuman forces, which are easily hated. Our home ports are but a fleeting reprieve, sometimes despised for the temporary shelter that they represent. And we are constantly cast adrift, at sea, at war, again and again.
The criticisms that I have for The Cruel Sea are not numerous. They ride below the surface of the book, but they are still there. They include an inability on the part of Monsarrat to fully hit home with the important themes of the book. He seems too polite and he stops short of making you put the book down, look away, and to say (if I may borrow an appropriate phrase) you son of a bitch. The other shortcoming is distraction. There are subplots that do not contribute much to the story and seem to cater to more popular themes. However, even with these flaws, this book still stands on its own, offering insights into life at the extremes of human existence.
This book focuses on humans that are thrown into war from their peacetime lives. Accountants, bankers, journalists, cargo ship captains, pension seeking peacetime sailors, are all placed in a war that they, as individuals, had very little to do with its inception. From there, the changes in the characters are illustrated through the most extreme of circumstances and the ever-accumulating risk associated with time. Decisions are made and sacrifices are suffered. The enemy becomes transformed from humans with differing points of view into mere objects of resistance: worthy of a hatred that can only be bestowed upon the most inhuman of threats. And the defenders are transformed into machines that are virtually unaware of the hatred that they display.
The book serves to bring to life the historical accounts of the war, but it also opens up parallels that exist in our current lives. In the hear-and-now, stresses are also ever-present and they accumulate with time. We eventually lose our peace-of-mind to a constant and continuing struggle.
Today's economic participants are perpetually at sea and failure may very well be a sort of virtual death. Our livelihood, which is often synonymous with life itself, can be stolen by seemingly inhuman forces, which are easily hated. Our home ports are but a fleeting reprieve, sometimes despised for the temporary shelter that they represent. And we are constantly cast adrift, at sea, at war, again and again.
The criticisms that I have for The Cruel Sea are not numerous. They ride below the surface of the book, but they are still there. They include an inability on the part of Monsarrat to fully hit home with the important themes of the book. He seems too polite and he stops short of making you put the book down, look away, and to say (if I may borrow an appropriate phrase) you son of a bitch. The other shortcoming is distraction. There are subplots that do not contribute much to the story and seem to cater to more popular themes. However, even with these flaws, this book still stands on its own, offering insights into life at the extremes of human existence.
September 10, 2022
Published in 1951, this book is a classic fiction of maritime warfare in the Battle of the Atlantic during WWII, focused on a corvette ship assigned to protect convoys from German U-Boats. At the story opens, the newly built HMS Compass Rose is just being readied for launch and the crew is in training. The only experienced crew member is Lieutenant-Commander George Ericson, who had previously served in the Merchant Navy. His officers are new to the Royal Navy, as so many were at the start of the war, having previously held civilian jobs. It is told linearly, covering 1939 to 1945, with one chapter dedicated to each year, and is based on the author’s own (and, at that time, recent) experiences.
The book focuses on the relationship between the commander and officers, particularly his lieutenant, Lockhart. As a newbie, Lockhart is thrown into the maelstrom and must learn quickly how to function effectively. The commander serves as a friend and role model. I particularly appreciated one scene where fatigue was overtaking the crew after days of intense watches, maintaining constant vigilance in the face of exhaustion, and contending with the threat of torpedoes that could come with little warning. We follow the ship’s crew in encountering the enemy, weathering storms, and conducting the routine daily work at sea.
The story portrays the importance of making quick decisions, which lead to life-or-death consequences. We are privy to the characters’ doubts, fears, and feelings regarding those decisions. The women are not forgotten. We follow various crew members ashore during leave and view their interactions with spouses, family, and friends. One of the scenes toward the end poignantly and delicately describes love during wartime. Just beautifully done.
The characters are empathetically represented. Battle segments are vividly described. The crew rescues of other seamen after their ships sink and takes prisoners when the need arises. It is elegantly written, not sparing the brutalities of war, but not overly focused on them, either. I felt entirely immersed in this book. I felt like I was aboard ship during their voyages. It is among the best books I’ve read on the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII. Highly recommended.
The book focuses on the relationship between the commander and officers, particularly his lieutenant, Lockhart. As a newbie, Lockhart is thrown into the maelstrom and must learn quickly how to function effectively. The commander serves as a friend and role model. I particularly appreciated one scene where fatigue was overtaking the crew after days of intense watches, maintaining constant vigilance in the face of exhaustion, and contending with the threat of torpedoes that could come with little warning. We follow the ship’s crew in encountering the enemy, weathering storms, and conducting the routine daily work at sea.
The story portrays the importance of making quick decisions, which lead to life-or-death consequences. We are privy to the characters’ doubts, fears, and feelings regarding those decisions. The women are not forgotten. We follow various crew members ashore during leave and view their interactions with spouses, family, and friends. One of the scenes toward the end poignantly and delicately describes love during wartime. Just beautifully done.
The characters are empathetically represented. Battle segments are vividly described. The crew rescues of other seamen after their ships sink and takes prisoners when the need arises. It is elegantly written, not sparing the brutalities of war, but not overly focused on them, either. I felt entirely immersed in this book. I felt like I was aboard ship during their voyages. It is among the best books I’ve read on the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII. Highly recommended.
February 24, 2012
Monsarrat created a set of characters on a British warship who, throughout the Second World War, I came to deeply care about. THOSE MEN BECAME SO REAL TO ME. I HURT WHEN THEY HURT. CELEBRATED WHEN THEY SURVIVED YET ANOTHER PATROL, be it on the North Atlantic or in the waters on or above the Arctic Circle (escorting merchant ships carrying goods to the USSR).
February 21, 2020
Where to start?
For someone who enjoys reading anything related to world war 2, I have come to realise that I know very little regarding the battle of the Atlantic and the plight of Merchant ship, the escorts and their respective crews. I remember my Grandmother telling me about her Father (who served in the Merchant Navy) knew of men who were so dog tired that they could be seen slumped over oil drums fast asleep. I am aware that a staggering amount of shipping was lost and the U Boats were the scourge of Britain. So on the whole I don’t know very much, some basic cold bare facts but no context in terms of how these loses and strains took their toll on the men, apart from something my Grandmother said to me when I was a boy.
My Father for years, with an almost mantra repetitiveness has been telling me to watch the film or read the Cruel Sea, I always replied, “will do” with no real intention of getting round to it. I am so glad I now have.
You can really appreciate this was written by a person who had actually experienced these things, so the term historical “fiction” should be used loosely if describing this book.
It is a masterpiece, I feel in some respects very ahead of its time (coming from my novice literature experience) it doesn’t shy away from anything, even delving into the troubles of married life with a no holes barred approach, which I would guess for the time it was written was taboo to say the least.
Such strong emotions pour out of the pages, horror, violence, love, fear, anxiety, boredom, fatigue and so many more. From the ports of Liverpool, the back streets of Birkenhead, Gibraltar, Scottish lochs, across to the Icey waters of Russia and the gales of the Atlantic, this read takes you on a journey in many different ways. A lasting thing to stay with me from this book, is that people are just people, all people can be brave and afraid, all have short falls, all are capable of great and terrible things, just ordinary people doing the best they could or couldn’t do in a terrible period of history.
Brilliant.
For someone who enjoys reading anything related to world war 2, I have come to realise that I know very little regarding the battle of the Atlantic and the plight of Merchant ship, the escorts and their respective crews. I remember my Grandmother telling me about her Father (who served in the Merchant Navy) knew of men who were so dog tired that they could be seen slumped over oil drums fast asleep. I am aware that a staggering amount of shipping was lost and the U Boats were the scourge of Britain. So on the whole I don’t know very much, some basic cold bare facts but no context in terms of how these loses and strains took their toll on the men, apart from something my Grandmother said to me when I was a boy.
My Father for years, with an almost mantra repetitiveness has been telling me to watch the film or read the Cruel Sea, I always replied, “will do” with no real intention of getting round to it. I am so glad I now have.
You can really appreciate this was written by a person who had actually experienced these things, so the term historical “fiction” should be used loosely if describing this book.
It is a masterpiece, I feel in some respects very ahead of its time (coming from my novice literature experience) it doesn’t shy away from anything, even delving into the troubles of married life with a no holes barred approach, which I would guess for the time it was written was taboo to say the least.
Such strong emotions pour out of the pages, horror, violence, love, fear, anxiety, boredom, fatigue and so many more. From the ports of Liverpool, the back streets of Birkenhead, Gibraltar, Scottish lochs, across to the Icey waters of Russia and the gales of the Atlantic, this read takes you on a journey in many different ways. A lasting thing to stay with me from this book, is that people are just people, all people can be brave and afraid, all have short falls, all are capable of great and terrible things, just ordinary people doing the best they could or couldn’t do in a terrible period of history.
Brilliant.
July 29, 2011
This is an excellent novel about the brutal Battle of the Atlantic told principally from the perspective of two officers tasked to escort convoys in the North Atlantic. The novel chronicles their harrowing life at sea and also details the difficulties of leadership.
Most of the maritime books I've read about this era have been by submariners (I occasionally, accidentally found myself thinking from their perspective), so this was a treat for me. Also, many of the books I've read about naval warfare during WWII have been either German or American, so the British point of view was of great interest to me. (Especially enjoyable was their perspective on the Americans, during an interlude in NYC circa 1944).
Great book. It rightfully has a place alongside the best sea literature.
Most of the maritime books I've read about this era have been by submariners (I occasionally, accidentally found myself thinking from their perspective), so this was a treat for me. Also, many of the books I've read about naval warfare during WWII have been either German or American, so the British point of view was of great interest to me. (Especially enjoyable was their perspective on the Americans, during an interlude in NYC circa 1944).
Great book. It rightfully has a place alongside the best sea literature.
August 15, 2011
I got turned onto this book as a result of watching the great film starring Jack Hawkins (whose grizzled face as he contemplates his sunk ship is hair raising, as is his angry lament: "The war! The war! The bloody war!"). I enjoyed it immensely. Monsarrat clearly knows what he's talking about, and the story of the bravery of those men who protected the Atlantic Convoy from the German u-Boat "Wolf Packs" is one full of long periods of boredom interspersed with terrible, sudden tragedy. It's difficult really to say too much without giving the whole game away, but one sequence during which a boat is sunk and the officers try to keep the men active and awake during the icy night in order to preserve their lives in anticipation of rescue at first light is amongst some of the best writing I've ever read. Monsarrat passes the narrative around from person to person, some of whom live, and some of whom die. My maternal grandfather was part of this effort during the war so maybe I'm biased, but whilst it was not the swahbuckling D-Day stuff, the intrepid efforts of the Navy shuttling supplies back and forth from America (especially during the period during which the US maintained a disgraceful neutrality) is a great story, and one which is told quietly but somewhat brilliantly in this book.
December 8, 2012
I feel like this was one of the most important books I've ever read.
"... the time for sensibility was past, gentleness was outdated, and feeling need not come again till the unfeeling job was over." p. 106.
"Saltash's crew was almost double the size of Compass Rose's, and sometimes it seemed that they were twice the distance away as well, and twice as anonymous. There was no one like Gregg, the seaman with the unfaithful wife, there was no one like Wainwright to cherish the depth charges, there was no one like Yeoman Wells who looked after the signal men with a father's care; or if there were these characters on board, as there must still have been, they did not meet the eye, they had the permanent disguise of being names on a watch bill or a pay list, not individuals whose foibles had to be remembered. Perhaps it was a gain, perhaps it was a loss; when he took Hands Fall In each morning, and looked down a long double line of eighty seamen whom he barely knew by sight and would not have recognized ashore, Lockhart sometimes regretted the intimate past, and the feeling, which he had had in Compass Rose, that this was a family matter, not a parade. But possibly the gain was in efficiency, which was always liable to be a cold-blooded matter. " p. 393-4.
"But when this one is over, the thing to be will be an American. They'll be running the world, because we'll be broke and exhausted: they'll be in charge of everything-these charming dunderheaded children who can't see round the very first corner of history, these products of a crapulous chauvinism-" p. 479.
"... the time for sensibility was past, gentleness was outdated, and feeling need not come again till the unfeeling job was over." p. 106.
"Saltash's crew was almost double the size of Compass Rose's, and sometimes it seemed that they were twice the distance away as well, and twice as anonymous. There was no one like Gregg, the seaman with the unfaithful wife, there was no one like Wainwright to cherish the depth charges, there was no one like Yeoman Wells who looked after the signal men with a father's care; or if there were these characters on board, as there must still have been, they did not meet the eye, they had the permanent disguise of being names on a watch bill or a pay list, not individuals whose foibles had to be remembered. Perhaps it was a gain, perhaps it was a loss; when he took Hands Fall In each morning, and looked down a long double line of eighty seamen whom he barely knew by sight and would not have recognized ashore, Lockhart sometimes regretted the intimate past, and the feeling, which he had had in Compass Rose, that this was a family matter, not a parade. But possibly the gain was in efficiency, which was always liable to be a cold-blooded matter. " p. 393-4.
"But when this one is over, the thing to be will be an American. They'll be running the world, because we'll be broke and exhausted: they'll be in charge of everything-these charming dunderheaded children who can't see round the very first corner of history, these products of a crapulous chauvinism-" p. 479.
February 7, 2017
The Cruel Sea is the story of the crew of a newly commissioned corvette, Compass Rose, a ship that forms part of the escort to merchant convoys during World War II. The crew are mostly inexperienced men from non-naval backgrounds and the story focuses on their differing reactions to the horrifying experiences they have as German U-boats attack their convoys with increasing success. Some will survive the war, and some won't - but all of them will be changed by their experiences.
But this isn't just a war story. In a surprisingly subtle way, The Cruel Sea also chronicles the often abrasive process by which classes, previously unknown to each other, were thrown together onboard ship and had to learn to rub along - and how the earned respect, in the long term, led to the future Welfare State and the social equity and cooperation of the 50's and 60's.
The novel, published in 1951, was an immediate success and it has never been out of print since. It brings home the realities of the longest battle in the second world war, the Battle for the Atlantic, but it does so not through harrowing depiction of the horrors involved, but through its detailed depiction the people involved, people we come to care about, to admire, and to mourn. -- BBC Radio4x
Listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qxyw3
1 FEB 2017 - a terrific listen-to. I cared for the characters and worried for them in the rough North Sea. I have placed this book on my to-buy list.
But this isn't just a war story. In a surprisingly subtle way, The Cruel Sea also chronicles the often abrasive process by which classes, previously unknown to each other, were thrown together onboard ship and had to learn to rub along - and how the earned respect, in the long term, led to the future Welfare State and the social equity and cooperation of the 50's and 60's.
The novel, published in 1951, was an immediate success and it has never been out of print since. It brings home the realities of the longest battle in the second world war, the Battle for the Atlantic, but it does so not through harrowing depiction of the horrors involved, but through its detailed depiction the people involved, people we come to care about, to admire, and to mourn. -- BBC Radio4x
Listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qxyw3
1 FEB 2017 - a terrific listen-to. I cared for the characters and worried for them in the rough North Sea. I have placed this book on my to-buy list.
January 30, 2025
Un palpitante romanzo ambientato nei lunghi anni della seconda guerra mondiale che ha come ambientazione le infide rotte atlantiche, dove celato in un oceano gelido e burrascoso, il nemico tedesco, forte di una flotta di u-boot impavidi e sprezzanti, si infiltrava nei convogli alleati, silurando senza pietà piroscafi e petroliere a dispetto della feroce determinazione degli equipaggi delle corvette inglesi di scorta, di contrastarne le azioni con una difesa che ricorreva a tutti i mezzi possibili, con coraggio, fermezza e abnegazione. Ma la bellezza del romanzo sta anche e soprattutto nel racconto degli uomini che combatterono questa difficile guerra, mettendo a fuoco la lotta quotidiana contro il nemico tedesco, il nemico oceano e la morte quasi certa in quelle acque tenebrose e gelide. Il Comandante Ericson e il suo secondo Tenente Lockart sono i due protagonisti più fulgidi di questa epopea indimenticabile.
May 7, 2014
This is Nicholas Monsarrat's best work, in my opinion, and it falls into the "Must Read" category for WWII fans. Actually, it's the only Monsarrat book that really works for me as entertainment. I've read THE CRUEL SEA three times; every time the story just barely holds me to continue reading, and every time I find myself haunted for weeks afterward by some of the scenes. Is it a "Masterpiece?" Maybe.
Monsarrat writes with a staid, formal "British" prose, somewhat at odds with the occasional typos in my paperback copy and Monsarrat's livelier characters and occasional violent fighting action. The novel is more a character study than a rousing action tale, and Monsarrat repeatedly indulges in foreshadowing.
The real hero of this novel is not Lockhart, the executive officer for both the first doomed ship, and also the exec of the later ship. The hero is the British navy.
The only real villains are the sea and the war.
The last quarter of the book takes on a different character, as if Monsarrat found himself under pressure to keep his book within a specific length.
@hg47
Monsarrat writes with a staid, formal "British" prose, somewhat at odds with the occasional typos in my paperback copy and Monsarrat's livelier characters and occasional violent fighting action. The novel is more a character study than a rousing action tale, and Monsarrat repeatedly indulges in foreshadowing.
The real hero of this novel is not Lockhart, the executive officer for both the first doomed ship, and also the exec of the later ship. The hero is the British navy.
The only real villains are the sea and the war.
The last quarter of the book takes on a different character, as if Monsarrat found himself under pressure to keep his book within a specific length.
@hg47
December 9, 2022
Simply brilliant!
So i have to admit to having seen the film before reading the book. It's one of those great black and white films that gets repeated on free to air TV all the time, usually on a saturday or sunday afternoon. Comfy kino.
I found the book even better than the film. More depth, more emotional intensity, more to really get your teeth into.
The great achievement of this novel is to humanize the battle of the Atlantic. We've all seen or read something about the battle of the Atlantic, the German U-Boats tried to strangle British shipping and starve Britain into submission while the Royal Navy sent good men and ships out to die so that the convoys got through. That's the bare facts of it but one must always remember the people involved were really people, they had loves and hates, hopes and fears, they were afraid of dying, they wanted to fuck a woman when they got ashore, they missed their families, etc.
This novel brings those men to life. It feels so real, you can almost feel the cold winds of the North Atlantic, almost feel the exhaustion, almost feel the drudgery and misery of convoy escort duty.
A brilliant book, highly recommend it.
So i have to admit to having seen the film before reading the book. It's one of those great black and white films that gets repeated on free to air TV all the time, usually on a saturday or sunday afternoon. Comfy kino.
I found the book even better than the film. More depth, more emotional intensity, more to really get your teeth into.
The great achievement of this novel is to humanize the battle of the Atlantic. We've all seen or read something about the battle of the Atlantic, the German U-Boats tried to strangle British shipping and starve Britain into submission while the Royal Navy sent good men and ships out to die so that the convoys got through. That's the bare facts of it but one must always remember the people involved were really people, they had loves and hates, hopes and fears, they were afraid of dying, they wanted to fuck a woman when they got ashore, they missed their families, etc.
This novel brings those men to life. It feels so real, you can almost feel the cold winds of the North Atlantic, almost feel the exhaustion, almost feel the drudgery and misery of convoy escort duty.
A brilliant book, highly recommend it.
June 15, 2017
What's the worst that could happen to you after your ship was sunk by a submarine ?
Your buddies are closing in on your cluster of shivering men in vests, ready to whisk you to the safety of hot soup. Then the sonar picks up the U-Boat's position. It is right underneath you. After a moment's hesitation, the standing orders are clear: engage and destroy the enemy at all costs. A convoy that lingers to rescue survivors is like a herd huddled around a lame beast. The wolves are circling. The depth charges are set, the barrels launched. They plunge around you. In a minute you'll be dead by friendly concussion. Those are the orders.
- a scene from the Cruel Sea . Etched.
Your buddies are closing in on your cluster of shivering men in vests, ready to whisk you to the safety of hot soup. Then the sonar picks up the U-Boat's position. It is right underneath you. After a moment's hesitation, the standing orders are clear: engage and destroy the enemy at all costs. A convoy that lingers to rescue survivors is like a herd huddled around a lame beast. The wolves are circling. The depth charges are set, the barrels launched. They plunge around you. In a minute you'll be dead by friendly concussion. Those are the orders.
- a scene from the Cruel Sea . Etched.
June 26, 2016
This is a memoir written as fiction. It is gripping and a page turner. This is an all time favorite of mine. I love the movie as well.
July 8, 2013
A novel that exposes the mercilessness of the North Atlantic U-Boat war. Monsarrat gives life to the relentless character of both enemies -- man and nature. Arguably the best novel of war at sea.
December 10, 2016
Not awful.
You know those bad, stereotypical WWII films that used to litter the late, late show? This book is one of those, in print. Noble young men striving -- nay, Striving Mightily against Cruel Fate. Or in this case, the Cruel Sea. And, you know, Jerry.
That's this book: Cartoonish characters and dialogue; OK action sequences; a lot of heroic Posing & Musing; possibly the worst romance ever set in print. Appallingly snobbish.
All of which conspires to make it sound slightly worse than it is. There was a lot of this kind of stuff written after the war, much of which I read when I was 13 or so, when I had exhausted the SF section of the Armstrong Public Library. The settings varied, from Pacific jungles to the North African desert to in this case North Atlantic convoy shipping. Otherwise they are as cookie-cutter as Harlequin romances, although those have better sex scenes. This is not as good as The Caine Mutiny, not as cheesy as From Here to Eternity. Certainly not as fun as The Guns of Navarone.
If you're 13 and in your war phase, have a gun fetish or are into unintentionally homoerotic military fiction you will probably enjoy this.
You know those bad, stereotypical WWII films that used to litter the late, late show? This book is one of those, in print. Noble young men striving -- nay, Striving Mightily against Cruel Fate. Or in this case, the Cruel Sea. And, you know, Jerry.
That's this book: Cartoonish characters and dialogue; OK action sequences; a lot of heroic Posing & Musing; possibly the worst romance ever set in print. Appallingly snobbish.
All of which conspires to make it sound slightly worse than it is. There was a lot of this kind of stuff written after the war, much of which I read when I was 13 or so, when I had exhausted the SF section of the Armstrong Public Library. The settings varied, from Pacific jungles to the North African desert to in this case North Atlantic convoy shipping. Otherwise they are as cookie-cutter as Harlequin romances, although those have better sex scenes. This is not as good as The Caine Mutiny, not as cheesy as From Here to Eternity. Certainly not as fun as The Guns of Navarone.
If you're 13 and in your war phase, have a gun fetish or are into unintentionally homoerotic military fiction you will probably enjoy this.
December 5, 2020
A classic war story. But this is much more than an account of the Battle of the Atlantic; it's a powerfully human story, following the remarkable achievements of men who, far from being 'professional' sailors, began the war as journalists, bank clerks, salesmen etc. and within a few weeks found themselves in charge of ships of war, guarding convoys against the attacks of hordes of submarines. And above all, it's about the price that those men and women and their loved ones were required to pay
Here are no hymns of glory, no beating of drums, no artful prose, just five and a half years of sheer brutality, horrendous weather, sheer wretchedness and loss of life in the cruelest manner possible: it's 510 pages of endurance. I would challenge any reader to endure the last 20 pages of Part IV without being deeply affected. The book left me with a sense of futility, inasmuch as humanity learned nothing from those hellish years, other than having devised increasingly efficient methods of killing vast numbers of fellow humans.
All that said, this is a very fine novel indeed, probably one of the best war novels ever written. It was definitely hard going in places, and that is how it should be. I'm pleased to have read it.
Here are no hymns of glory, no beating of drums, no artful prose, just five and a half years of sheer brutality, horrendous weather, sheer wretchedness and loss of life in the cruelest manner possible: it's 510 pages of endurance. I would challenge any reader to endure the last 20 pages of Part IV without being deeply affected. The book left me with a sense of futility, inasmuch as humanity learned nothing from those hellish years, other than having devised increasingly efficient methods of killing vast numbers of fellow humans.
All that said, this is a very fine novel indeed, probably one of the best war novels ever written. It was definitely hard going in places, and that is how it should be. I'm pleased to have read it.
January 11, 2021
For those who like books glorifying war, this is not for you. Rather it is the tale of men against the sea and a determined enemy. It is about boredom, terror, and doing the job. It is a sailor’s view of war, but you need not be a sailor to enjoy it. Set in the Atlantic throughout World War II, it traces a Captain and his Number One from 1939 through 1945. The real star of the novel is however in the title, the Cruel Sea.
August 17, 2017
This excellent WWII historical novel is set in the Atlantic and follows key crew members for the breadth of the war. Characterizations offer insight to why and how many joined the war effort, (and the impact on families left behind), and the shocking lack of training given before sailors were in the thick of fighting. Battle scenes were exciting and sometimes heartbreaking. Written in 1951, the writer's still raw passion for the subject is apparent. Really a terrific book.
September 1, 2025
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat, adapted for The BBC
A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
This is a very good work about war.
And…The Cruel Sea.
By a strange coincidence, I have finished listening to this adaptation after having the chance to hear another:
- Homage to Catalonia
There are similarities and differences.
- They are both about war
- In Homage to Catalonia and The Cruel Sea we have protagonists with left wind views, sometimes convictions
- Both narratives propose formulas for conflict
- In Homage to Catalonia war was 99% tedium and 1% sheer terror
- The Cruel Sea presents a formula that goes something like this: 94% paper work and the rest bloody bodies
It is a compelling, meaningful, moving, and terrifying at times, especially knowing it was all so real tale of men, ships and The Cruel Sea:
- “Capt. Ericson: [opening lines as narrator] This is a story of the Battle of the Atlantic, the story of the ocean, two ships, and a handful of men. The men are the heroes; the heroines the ships. The only villain is the sea, the cruel sea that man has made more cruel.”
Horrifying as it mostly is the story includes some comical and at times happy moments, when some romance escapes the gruesome war.
At the end, which is well known by all those who have been through some elementary classes, so no need for spoiler alerts, and the Nazis surrender.
But a couple of U boats arrive with one captain so full of himself and arrogant that looked like he is on parade.
This upsets Captain Ericson who orders:
- Shoot through the hair of this repugnant individual to show him who won…words to that effect that is
Otherwise, most of the narrative is about scores of people dying, civilians on board convoy ships and soldiers.
Some die horrendously, in what is called “friendly fire”.
In one instance, our heroes think they have identified signals from an enemy submarine, a U boat that is near.
The decision to attack it is terrorizing the captain, who wants to destroy a vessel that would kill so many if allowed to escape.
Only just where the explosives need to be discharged in order to get the German submarine, survivors from a ship are stranded.
When the explosion is over, bodies and body parts flow through the air and float on The Cruel Sea without any good reason:
- It was a mistake and the signal must have had another cause
That has reminded me of two other events, one more recent and the other from The Imitation Game, the moment when they break the Enigma Machine Code.
There is an impulse to announce a convoy of ships about the imminent attack that is now known from the decoded messages.
But if they would do that, the Germans would know that there code is now useless and immediately change it.
So it is better to allow innocent people to die at that moment and avoid the death of many, many more later.
The other terrible event involved the US Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes that has shot down an Iranian passenger plane.
The awful mistake is mentioned in the classic Blink- the Power of Thinking without Thinking by the fabulous Malcolm Gladwell.
It refers to the theory of “thin slicing” and the pressure in that particular case to decide in seconds what to do about an incoming flight that did not respond to any warning and repeated attempts to make it change course.
A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
This is a very good work about war.
And…The Cruel Sea.
By a strange coincidence, I have finished listening to this adaptation after having the chance to hear another:
- Homage to Catalonia
There are similarities and differences.
- They are both about war
- In Homage to Catalonia and The Cruel Sea we have protagonists with left wind views, sometimes convictions
- Both narratives propose formulas for conflict
- In Homage to Catalonia war was 99% tedium and 1% sheer terror
- The Cruel Sea presents a formula that goes something like this: 94% paper work and the rest bloody bodies
It is a compelling, meaningful, moving, and terrifying at times, especially knowing it was all so real tale of men, ships and The Cruel Sea:
- “Capt. Ericson: [opening lines as narrator] This is a story of the Battle of the Atlantic, the story of the ocean, two ships, and a handful of men. The men are the heroes; the heroines the ships. The only villain is the sea, the cruel sea that man has made more cruel.”
Horrifying as it mostly is the story includes some comical and at times happy moments, when some romance escapes the gruesome war.
At the end, which is well known by all those who have been through some elementary classes, so no need for spoiler alerts, and the Nazis surrender.
But a couple of U boats arrive with one captain so full of himself and arrogant that looked like he is on parade.
This upsets Captain Ericson who orders:
- Shoot through the hair of this repugnant individual to show him who won…words to that effect that is
Otherwise, most of the narrative is about scores of people dying, civilians on board convoy ships and soldiers.
Some die horrendously, in what is called “friendly fire”.
In one instance, our heroes think they have identified signals from an enemy submarine, a U boat that is near.
The decision to attack it is terrorizing the captain, who wants to destroy a vessel that would kill so many if allowed to escape.
Only just where the explosives need to be discharged in order to get the German submarine, survivors from a ship are stranded.
When the explosion is over, bodies and body parts flow through the air and float on The Cruel Sea without any good reason:
- It was a mistake and the signal must have had another cause
That has reminded me of two other events, one more recent and the other from The Imitation Game, the moment when they break the Enigma Machine Code.
There is an impulse to announce a convoy of ships about the imminent attack that is now known from the decoded messages.
But if they would do that, the Germans would know that there code is now useless and immediately change it.
So it is better to allow innocent people to die at that moment and avoid the death of many, many more later.
The other terrible event involved the US Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes that has shot down an Iranian passenger plane.
The awful mistake is mentioned in the classic Blink- the Power of Thinking without Thinking by the fabulous Malcolm Gladwell.
It refers to the theory of “thin slicing” and the pressure in that particular case to decide in seconds what to do about an incoming flight that did not respond to any warning and repeated attempts to make it change course.
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