The Ship

by C.S. Forester

One vital convoy can break Mussolini’s stranglehold on Malta – but it is intercepted in the Mediterranean by enemy warships …

Five light British cruisers are left to beat back the armed might of the Italian battle fleet and C.S. Forester – creator of Horatio Hornblower – takes us aboard HMS Artemis as she steams into battle against overwhelming odds. We get inside the heads of Artemis’s men, from the Captain on his bridge down to the lowest engine room rating, as they struggle over one long and terrifying afternoon to do their duty.

C.S. Forester brilliantly recounts life aboard a British warship during some of the darkest days of the Second World War: capturing the urgency of the blazing guns, the thunderous rupturing of deck plates, the screams of pain and the shouts of triumph.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, War, Military Fiction, World War II, Nautical, Novels

202 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

Cecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure and military crusades. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, about naval warfare during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 by John Huston). His novels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

Reviews

[BlackOxford · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Cockney Interest in Disaster and Death

Published in the middle of WWII, The Ship is simultaneously an adventure, a philosophy of naval warfare and a statement of a new world order packaged in a short novel. So, while entirely obsolete as topical fiction, it is nevertheless a significant literary document.

There are only a few ways by which to fictionalise military experience. One, used by Forester so successfully in his Hornblower books, is to follow the career of an individual through personal conflict and trials of battle. Another, far more risky and the technique used in The Ship, is to narrate the interactions among men while they work out these interactions during a single engagement. Risky because if the author isn't skilful enough, the result is a sort of stilted psycho-drama without inherent narrative drive or interest.

Forester, of course, is more than skilled enough to pull it off. And he uses this interactive technique to make some essential points about the unique character of naval warfare, at least as far as such warfare used to be carried out. Primary is the fact that while in ground or air combat individual error is regrettable and damaging, at sea the same magnitude of error is most often disastrous. Any failure in the long chain of events carried out in a ship's organisation - from the cooks on the mess deck, to the oiler exiled to the remote shaft alley - means catastrophic failure of the whole not just a portion of the crew.

The mundane details of shipboard life give texture to Forester's depiction of battle. His constant theme is the extreme vulnerability of the ship, and not only from internal error. "The ship was an eggshell," he says, "armed with sledgehammers, and her mission in life was to give without receiving." To be part of the ship is to share its necessary fragility, and to silently accept it. This is the peculiar courage of sailors that is captured in the Nelsonian battle grace for officers as they stood ramrod still awaiting a broadside: “For what we are about to receive let us be truly thankful.”

Sea power today means something different than it did in 1943. Forester knew that the old Royal Navy was disappearing along with the ancien regime of British society. But for that moment "Ships –ships and the men in them –were still deciding the fate of the world."

[Jan-Maat]

Forester's The Ship is I guess the father of The Cruel Sea, and HMS Ulysses, as a tale of the Royal Navy during World War II, it was the only one of the three actually to be published during the war in 1943 after Forester had spent some time on HMS Penelope, given the date of publication the elements of propaganda are not surprising, although one element did seem a little curious. The story is loosely based on the Second battle of Sirte (March 1942) a convoy enroute to Malta, escorted by a light escort of cruisers and destroyers is engaged by a substantially stronger Italian force, or as the book has it 'the complete might of the Italian navy'.

The novel concentrates purely on the naval engagement, the 250 pages might deal with a period of about an hour, the first chapter in which a meal is prepared, distributed and eaten, accounts for about half an hour. So Forester really slows down the action of the story. Each chapter moves round the ship focusing on one character and their station and what they are doing (engine room, gunnery control, minding the bilge, etc) apart from the penultimate chapter which takes place on the enemy flagship. It is a bold and confident way to approach the story, naturally because most of the characters can only hear the battle or have an extremely constricted perspective as readers we don't know what is happening either apart from "England expects that every man will do his duty", which is what we see, that too is the central message of the book. As a result the characters tend to be ranks and roles, though in the case of the captain we eventually learn that he had to overcome his tendency to control his wife and his fratricidal rages to become the calm captain that we see at the time of the battle radiating the certainty and trust in his crew that allows them to carry out their duties as England expects.

Curiously this is a very English book, not just in the obligatory whitewashing but while both The Cruel Sea and HMS Ulysses had token colonial officers, The Ship doesn't have as much as a Scottish or Welsh character, there is one Irishman - and he's from the Free State, which is to say that this ship's crew is less diverse than the English army in Shakespeare's Henry V, given that Forester is careful to tell us where each member of the crew comes from in England this seems to be no accident, but a careful statement of English nationalism - sod Britannia rules the waves, this is about England and Englishness, which here is a record of war from the battle of Hastings curiously, we are pointed towards the courage of the defeated Saxons, not the victory of the Normans which is perhaps a clue as to his views on race and inheritance , victory over the Spanish Armada, wars with the French, and the second World war a- ll occasions to demonstrate the sang froid, insouciance, and hauteur which typify the English character (irony intended), given the origins then of the English character it comes as no surprise that this weak escort force has thoroughly internalised the object lesson of Admiral Byng's execution pour encourager les autres as Voltaire put it, and they attack the enemy. Part of Forester's point is that to be English is to be a dogged fighter, by implication victory will belong to the English in this war too because they have a tradition of winning, the 'might of the Italian navy' can be set at naught, because the Italians have a tradition of defeat. The will to victory determines success for Forester, and will to victory comes from the careful creation of the nation as a tradition of victories in war, if you find yourself sniggering or wryly smiling at the prospect of the 'might of the Italian navy' then you too have been infected by the same ideas that Forester is propagating here.

The emphasis on duty and the evolution of roles on board ship was so strong that when I came to this: it would be hard to believe that flight was actually the last thought that occurred to them, except that our minds are dulled by tales of heroism and discipline. We hear so many stories of men doing their duty that our minds are biased in that direction. The miracle of men staying in the face of the most frightful death imaginable ceases to be a miracle unless attention is directly called to it. (p.186) I was taken aback and surprised, automatic unthinking performance of duty is what the ship requires - but this leads to death not just figuratively of the individual but literally of life itself. A curious development in a war novel published in the midst of a war which required millions if necessary to die precisely in such a manner -dully carrying out their duty.

Despite the relative lack of action, and the deliberately limited characters, as a story it works very well in creating and maintaining a sense of tension and urgency, as the Ship's crew labour to do what England expects of them.

[Ant Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very much a product of the time and place it was written, and as such it is wholly deserving of 5 stars. Do bear in mind though that this is propaganda- written specifically for the British government at a time of war. For all that, and it's over arching patriotic fervour, this book is a superb evocation of the community of men that made a WWII Royal Naval warship, and is almost as good as The Cruel Sea as a read.

To really appreciate it you need to recognise it for what it is - literature as battle cry.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good account of a Royal Navy ship in a single engagement in WWII. This book was written in 1943 in an obvious effort to lift the morale of the British at home and around the world, but it is more than simple propaganda. The author explains both the technology and the tactics of a cruiser engaging a superior force by going into the heads of officers and ratings (enlisted crew) with many different roles to play in running the ship during combat and at normal times. This cast of characters are not all noble, stalwart Hearts of Oak, but each is an interesting, surprisingly frank character sketch combined with an account of that that person is doing as a part of his normal job..

[Deanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this reminds me of my Dad, who was a gunnery instructor and in the RN for 27 years. Very detailed description of the battle as seen from various view points.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Updated Adds Review
3.4 ⭐
Decent enough war story about the adventures of a British warship in the Mediterranean in WWII. Forester wrote this largely as a propaganda piece to curry favor with American audiences for the British side; it's still a good story of its self and has some interesting character sketches of the crew of the " warts-and-all, everyman school". I liked it.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was first published in 1943 (and reprinted 13 times after the war) while Britain was still at war and is dedicated to the men and ship’s company of HMS Penelope – a fast cruiser which was one of the ships responsible for supplying Malta. The ship in the novel, HMS Artemis, is fictitious as all her company but it reads like it could be a true story.

The book is crammed full of details of how you conduct a battle at sea;

p122 “A forty knot torpedo fired at a range of three miles at a ship advancing at twenty knots reaches its target in three minutes having only travelled two miles; but if the ship is retreating instead of advancing the torpedo must run for nine minutes before it overtakes it target. So a torpedo attack must always be delivered from ahead of the enemy’s line…”

With my keen interest in what happened on board during WW2 naval battles this is riveting stuff. Forester works his way round the ship introducing each of the sections, explaining their role and providing a little back story for the men; from paymaster commander George Brown in the opening to Henry Hobbs, Stoker first class in the shaft tunnel aft later in the book. One of the disadvantages of structuring the novel in this way is that you only get a glimpse of most of these men. There is no opportunity for character development as the only characters who reappear are the captain and the captain’s secretary, James Jerningham. In some instances the men are killed at their stations shortly after the reader has seen them in action. But Forester was writing for the consumption of those at home whose men were at sea and would have wanted every last scrap of detail about what a paymaster commander did.

It almost goes without saying that the British officers are resolute – with the captain continuing to engage with the enemy even though the Artemis has been hit and is on fire. I’ve seen another reviewer describe it as propaganda but I prefer a’ rattling good yarn’.

[Rene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1943, the novel is an account of HMS Artemis, a British light cruiser, part of a group escorting a convoy of needed supplies to Malta. The focus is on a crucial battle between the British task group and a Italian battle group of superior capabilities and numbers, emphasizing the action on the Artemis.

Each chapter focuses on an individual crewman; sometimes an officer, in other chapters, an enlisted. The chapters serve to illustrate how each crewmen, be it a gunner, engineman, sick berth attendant, secretary, or officer, was instrumental in the success of the defense of the convoy.

Yes, this was written as a propaganda piece, but as military historical fiction, it serves to illustrate the importance of competent and motivated individuals, working as team, in the combat operations of modern naval vessels. I found it to be well written, as much as I've read of Forester's work (Hornblower Series), and will probably remain on the shelf for a reread.

[Christian Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book. Examining the lives of individual characters on HMS Artemis; from the commander to the ratings. Written during the war, it's an interesting insight into the emotions, trials, and tribulations of the convoys. HMS Artemis is travelling to Malta with a convoy with vital supplies when it encounters the Italian fleet. Each chapter not only dealing with the battle and the engagement, but looking at it through a different rank's view.

"But it was just like the Italians; when they decided to call their battleships after Italian victories they soon found themselves running out of names" p.176

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really appreciated the way Forester told this story of a light frigate on convoy duty in the Mediterranean during WW2. Many of the chapters were told from the point of view of a different perspective, ranging from the captain to ordinary seamen, engineers to gunners to lookouts.

[Chris Wray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful complement to "The Good Shepherd." While that novel focused on a single character, the captain of a destroyer on convoy escort duty, this one takes a wide-angle view of a single action, looking at the motivations and contributions of men from across the crew. In the former book, Forester takes a deep dive into the psychology and responsibility of command, as seen through the eyes of the unforgettable Commander Krause; in this novel his point is to highlight all the complex actions and decisions that must coalesce in a fighting ship if she is to survive, let alone win a naval engagement.

The consequences of some decisions are immediate and critical, such as when the Captain notes that his order to steer hard to starboard to avoid a collision in poor visibility was made with only half a second to spare. The impact of other decisions is less immediately tangible, such as the serving of food to the crew in chapter one in the lull between one period of action and another. In the end, every decision and contribution matters, and every action has consequences. The need for discipline, coordination, and selfless commitment cannot be overemphasised. This is a theme that Forester frequently returns to:

"The men at the guns were vigilant and yet relaxed, they would lose no time, not one- tenth of a second, in opening fire should another attack be launched, but they were not wasting their strength in staying keyed up unnecessarily. These men were veterans of nearly three years of war, three years during which at any moment death might swoop at them from the skies, and every movement they made showed it. The weapons they handled were part of their lives by now; not toys for formal parade, nor wearisome nuisances to be kept cleaned and polished in accordance with a meaningless convention; those cannons were of the very essence of life, as was the long rifle to the frontier pioneer, the brush to the artist, the bow to the violinist. In a world where the law was 'kill or be killed' they were determined to be the killers and not the killed- the tiger stalking his prey lived under the same law."

And again later, "There was no need for the outward show of discipline, of the Prussian Guard type, with these men. They understood their business; they had worked those guns in half a dozen victories; they knew what they were fighting for; they were men of independent habit of thought working together with a common aim. They did not have to be broken into unthinking obedience to ensure that they would do what they were told; thanks to their victories and to the age-long victorious tradition of their service they could be sure that their efforts would be directly aimed towards victory."

The extent to which the Captain must trust those under him to do their duty, and do it well, is tangible throughout and a constant source of tension. This all highlights the unique nature of naval warfare; no one can evade danger and take cover; the crew will all sink or survive together - they live and fight, memorably, in an "eggshell armed with sledgehammers." Peril is always lurking, and violence comes suddenly and catastrophically. The scenes set in the engine room are particularly memorable in this regard.

Even though the Captain isn't the focus of the novel in the same way that Krause is in The Good Shepherd, he is still the lynchpin that holds this little world together: "The Captain was tough both mentally and physically, hard like steel - a picked man, Jerningham reminded himself. And no man could last long in command of a light cruiser in the Mediterranean if he were not tough. Yet toughness was only one essential requisite in the make-up of a cruiser captain. He had to be a man of the most sensitive and delicate reflexes, too, ready to react instantly to any stimulus. Mere vulgar physical courage was common enough, thought Jerningham, regretfully, even if he did not possess it himself, but in the Captain's case it had to be combined with everything else, with moral courage, with the widest technical knowledge, with flexibility of mind and rapidity of thought and physical endurance - all this merely to command the ship in action, and that was only part of it. Before the ship could be brought into action it had to be made into an efficient fighting unit. Six hundred officers and men had to be trained to their work, and fitted into the intricate scheme of organization as complex as any jigsaw puzzle, and, once trained and organized, had to be maintained at fighting pitch. There were plenty of men who made reputations by successfully managing a big department store; managing a big ship of war was as great an achievement, even if not greater."

I think Forester's point is that the Captain, while important, sits atop a mountain of complex machinery and even more complex men, all of whom need to work together in constant and perfect harmony, in an environment of constant stress and danger. That's why war at sea is such an endlessly fascinating and fruitful setting for good fiction, and this is a fine example of it.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book glorifies the English Navy in WWII, in a sincere and emotional manner. It's a very short read, and the entire plot takes place in the course of a single engagement somewhere near Gibraltar in the Mediterranean, where an outnumbered British force must somehow turn back the nominally overwhelming strength of the Italian Navy. They do it with soup and sandwiches, strategy and the weather gage, seamanship and sacrifice. All these things are viscerally communicated. When you find out some gunner's mate has a terrific singing voice and writes poetry, you can bet an incoming round will shortly arrive with his name on it.

That's not to say it's campy: CS Forester is no Forrest Gump, and the tears jerked from you will be genuine. The book is an unabashed and seemingly deserved love letter to the stalwarts who won that war. We are led to imagine that if they'd faltered once, failed in bravery, altruism or slacked off on the slightest thing, the war could have turned.

[Jeff Mincy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable with a very relevant quote considering recent mishaps in the US Navy.

"The most beautiful machines, the most elaborate devices, were useless if the men who handled them were badly trained or shaken by fear, and there was the interesting point that the more complex the machinery, and the more human effort it saved, and the more exactly it performed its functions, the greater need there was for heroes to handle it. Not mere individual heroes, either, but a whole team of heroes. Disaster would be the result of a weak link anywhere along the long chain of the ship’s organization."

[Lester · Rating 1 out of 5]

the writing style is OK, but FOrester seems to have used this book for two purposes. Firstly, to use up some new big words he came across. Secondly, to tell us all that he knows about the different functions on board a ship.

The novel takes place on a ship in the middle of the second world war, in the midst of a battle. But this is the most drawn out, boring narration of one I have come across. Don't bother with it - really. I gave up after about half the book.

[Pete Abela · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable book. Forester did a wonderful job highlighting the many different personalities and unsung heroes who need to combine to achieve an major human endeavour - in this instance, successfully operating a cruiser in the Mediterranean.

[K.c. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as "The Good Shepherd," but still a great read about a WWII naval engagement.

[Anna Grace Galkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enter the mind of a HMS captain under the stress of the moment and gaze of world leaders. How much responsibility can one man hold, and how will he bear it up? Most decisions in life are made with too little information at hand, but a lifetime of experience to back it up. When the smoke clears, you as a leader discover you’ve made a decent call, but have egg on your face. Honor can be humbling.


Also - this book contains one of the only persuasive descriptions of drinking coffee I’ve ever read.

[Tiffany Petitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like an X-ray into the heart of a British battleship, both mechanically, and personally. It doesn't have any particular character it spends much time on, but there's a broad appreciation for each individual man that, through the mastery of his specific job, in spite of his shortcomings or personal issues, he is, in his own way, an irreplaceable hero that changed the course of the war and the world.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully crafted story by an amazingly able author. There were about 12 characters who provided the main axis of the story which revolved around a WW2 naval mission set in the Mediterranean as a convoy slowly tried to makes it way towards the island of Malta. The immensely descriptive passages about naval tactics, capabilities, weaknesses and conflict provided a very satisfying story.

[Dale Sabo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read. Takes you aboard HMS Artemis early in WWII when the Royal Navy was one of the last bulwarks against Fascism. Artemis is the Frigate of her day. Forester does this as good as anyone. A reminder of terrible darkness and those who beat it back.

[Jahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more of an idealized portrait of the RN at war dressed up as a novel. For this, it has great historical interest, but as a story, it is by far the weakest of Forester's wartime propaganda books. That said, it is still Forester, so it is still enjoyable.

[Stingray · Rating 5 out of 5]

With „The Ship“ C.S. Forester describes in much detail a single naval action of a British cruiser in the Mediterranean during World War II as much as he describes the integration of different roles and systems to make the cruiser an effective weapon system and the characters who man this system.

Published in 1943 after extensive research aboard British ships Forester wrote this novel as part of his service in the British Ministry of Information. Designed to explain how combat on a cruiser looked like and fascinate the British public for Navy life the novel may be called propaganda although it is doubtful much would have been changed, had he written it independently.

Each of Forester’s chapters is introduced by the terse lines from the Captain’s official report of the actions, which shows the reader the reality of understatement and omission of official reporting. The whole book only describes a naval action of one afternoon, as a British convoy escorted by a cruiser squadron as attacked by a superior Italian fleet. Nevertheless Forester utilizes this one action to show the interlocking tasks and roles to be fulfilled for the cruiser to work. Instead of focusing on the commanding officer or the people in the center of the action Forester introduces the reader to the sailors manning the crow’s nest, monitoring the bilge or loading the ammunition. The reader thus gains an understanding how important every single sailor is to the overall endeavor, as in some cases negligence of a single sailor may in turn cause the loss of the ship. Forester also introduces the people manning the cruiser in small vignettes in which he describes their motivations, goals and flaws, as these are not mindless machines doing their duty, but also have to functioning as such as part of the overall weapon system.

Forester succeeds in drawing the reader into the action, making him wonder what might happen next and where and to whom the story might take him on the ship. His writing is well and his character sketches are authentic and interesting. The average reader unfamiliar with World War II-era naval warfare will have a hard time coping with the detailed technical descriptions Forester provides, but this is also an interesting education as to how things were done at the time. Many positions described by Forester would today be replaced by sensors, computers or automated machinery and here we see people interacting and functioning in these roles.

In summary this is a gripping, interesting, educational and well researched novel of the Second World War, which will leave the reader with a better understanding and appreciation for the Navy at the time.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog here in March 1999.

Forester's wartime novel is fairly unashamedly a piece of propaganda, designed to make British readers proud of the efforts of the Navy. He spent some time sailing with the Navy in the Mediterranean, and this novel is based on what he saw.

What he has written is an account of a battle, each chapter heading being a phrase taken from the Captain's report sent to the Admiralty afterward. The novel is unusual among naval stories for the attention that it pays to the ordinary rank and file, including the commissary side (vitally important, of course, in a real war, but not very glamorous). Few stories make it out of the wardroom, let alone into the kitchen. Each person is allowed the chance to be a hero in his own way (the crew is men only at this date), from the captain to the most unreliable Ordinary Seaman.

The fact that each character (except, of course, the Italian officers on the ships that attack them) is allowed to be a hero is the reason that this book is propaganda not literature. It is intended to make those at home proud of the Navy, and to get them to work hard to further the war effort. This is why the action described is a crucial victory; this is why each man is a vital cog in a smoothly running machine. In 1943, it is necessary to have some realism in a description of a battle; Forester does not write about an action won by the heroism of one man, nor does he ignore the possibility of death, disfigurement and disability; he even allows feelings of cowardice (though these must be overcome). The book must have, for many readers, achieved its purpose, which was to encourage everyone who read it that their effort was important to the successful conclusion of the war.

[Michael Koch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book I read 40 or more years ago that might be educational but is no longer very interesting as a straight forward war book.
The setting is the Second World War. The ship "HMS Artemis" is part of a squadron of light cruisers defending a convoy of ships heading east in the Mediterranean Sea to Malta. The cruisers and destroyers are harassed constantly by aircraft and submarines; they expect to see larger surface ships at any time. Forester opens the book with 7½ pages of the thoughts, planning and execution of lunch by the Paymaster Commander whose job it is to feed the crew (using crew members least likely to be occupied on weapons) during a lull that he expects to last about half an hour. Following this, the enemy appears with larger cruisers, heavy cruisers and battleships in an effort to halt the convoy.
The book presents alternating chapters of details of various crew members and officers as they go through their specific roles in fighting the ship. One chapter detailing the battle and one detailing a crew member and what he is doing. The captain and the lowest oiler are covered as well as any crew member that non-sailors could imagine. The Artemis is hit but I will let you read the book to see what happens.
Perhaps on a par with “The Cruel Sea.” This book is of more historical than escapist value. In my opinion, for escapist value it has not stood the test of time. However, it is great if you are interested how all elements of the crew have to perform their parts in the ship during a battle. I personally found the technical stuff interesting too.
In my opinion, there are lots of better books if you are looking for a straight forward war story. Three stars.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting for this book is a light British Cruiser escorting a convoy transporting needed supplies to the Mediterranean Island of Malta during World War II. Malta was a strategic location at the time. Keeping Malta under British control hampered the Axis' ability to resupply Germany's Rommel in North Africa and contributed to Rommel's defeat there. The British and Italians suffered heavy losses in men, ships and material during the Siege of Malta.

Early in World War II the author moved to the US while working for the British Information Service. His task was to write propaganda that would encourage the US to join the British in the war effort. This book was written in that style: a propaganda piece intended to spark patriotic feelings and sympathy for the brave and committed British fighting the tyranny of Mussolini and Hitler.

Reading this book made me think of those Hollywood war movies made during World War II – they were never very good stories and when we watch them we recognize that they were propaganda pieces intended to spark patriotic fervor. This book is written in that style and its patriotic message overwhelms any literary value of the book. Useful to read so we can better recognize propaganda when we see it even if it is for a good cause. Learning to separate propaganda from news reporting or literature is a necessary survival skill - many people don't seem to be able to tell the difference.

To read Forester at his best, explore his Hornblower series. That's worth reading!

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent naval war story. Forester sets his story in the Meditteranean on HMS Artremis, a British cruiser part of a convoy of ships trying to relieve isolated Malta. Each chapter starts as an exerpt from the Capt's log with the chapter detailing the actions that make up this simple entry. Forester explores the ship, the crew as he tells his story. A simple story, but one of heroism, one battle against an Italian fleet. So well written, smootly paced to keep the pages turning. Excellent story. I rank it up with Alistair MacLean's HMS Ulyssess in great naval war stories.

[Lindsay Eaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably the 3rd time I've read this book, and it never disappoints. It's a good story and I like the way each chapter heading is a sentence out of the Captain's log - so that it carries you through the story, so to speak. Some of the digressions into the characters and lives of the sailors are a bit irritating, but I like all the information about the workings of the ship etc. All in all I think it's a cracking read.

[Frances · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am extremely interested in the history involving the convoys to Malta during World War 2. Having a background in reading about this period of history and having visited Malta more than once, I found this book extremely well written with extraordinary character development and insightful in depth, personal interactions between the ship and the crew.

[Curtiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite C.S. Forester novel based on the real-life light cruiser H.M.S. Penelope and the 2nd Battle of Sirte.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hour by hour story of the people who make a warship work, set in a WWII battle. A celebration of the sacrifices, tragedy and triumph.