The Ship [Paperback]

This is one of C.S. Forester's very best novels. I would rate it as a story as high as even the best of his Hornblower series; if one considers its literary qualities it is arguably his best book. The story of a single action in the Mediterranean fought by a single British light cruiser, it captures the intricacies of organization and teamwork that make a fighting ship. Above all, Forester makes clear, the business of naval warfare is that of flesh-and-blood men; from the lowliest seaman to the captain of the ship, all have a vital role to play--any one of them can be a hero.

Cecil Scott Forester is best known as the creator of Horatio Hornblower, but before writing the "Hornblower" novels about Nelson's navy he wrote many other books, from "Death to the French" to "The Peacemaker."

This little gem, "The Ship" describes the action seen by the crew of a light cruiser in the course of an afternoon's fighting as they struggle against overwhelming odds to get a vital convoy through to Malta during World War II.

Each chapter starts with a few words from the captain's official report of the battle and then describes what this meant from the viewpoint of the human beings involved, from the captain himself down to the most junior seaman. The contrast between the dry, understated language of the official document and the suffering and heroism of the real events can be very powerful. And the amount of detail packed into the book about life on a 1940's warship is amazing.

When you read a tale of a heroic battle against impossible odds you tend to assume that the author has made up the story, but in this case you would be wrong. There was a historical battles when a squadron of of British light cruisers escorting a convoy to Malta was attacked by a much heavier force and fought back in much the same way and with the same result as in this book. (If you're interested, look up the story of the second battle of Sirte.)

Some readers may find "The Ship" a little jingoistic. On the other hand, the real men and women who stood up to the nazis and their allies sometimes had to display heroism as great as in this book. C.S. Forester thought they had something to be proud of, and so do I.

Forester wrote several novels/short story collections featuring World War II at sea: the others were "The Good Shepherd", about an American commanding the escort of an atlantic convoy, "The Man in the Yellow Raft" set on a US destroyer in the Pacific, and "Gold from Crete," most of the stories in which are set on a Royal Navy destroyer. All the others are good, but "The Ship" is brilliant.

In my opinion there are four classic novels of World War II at sea: "H.M.S. Ulysses" by Alastair MacLean, "The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Montsarrat, "The Caine Mutiny" by Herman Wouk, and "The Ship" by C.S. Forester. I believe that "The Ship" is the best of the four.

If you're used to Forester's more character driven novels, specifically the Hornblower series as opposed to books like 'The Gun' you may be a bit put off by this. You need to realize that the people are not the characters here, the Ship itself is.

This is the story of a British supply convoy to Malta during WW2 which is attacked by an Italian force of far superior strength. The convoy must get through, but the Italians have two battleships, several destroyers, and various other ships while the British fighting force consists of only six destroyers and some light cruisers (and all the supply vessels as an albatross around their necks). A light cruiser or destroyer is merely an annoying little dog to a battleship, so strategy is called for.

The central character of this book is the light cruiser Artemis of Her Majesty's Royal Navy. It has a complement of several hundred, but the conceit here is that Forester treats them as cells or organs in the body of the ship. A typical chapter will involve a focus on some function on the ship (the Captain, the navigator, the chief engineer, all the way down to sailors doing tedious and seemingly trivial but necessary work). You'll be given the back story of the life of the man who performs that task and a fairly detailed summary of the job involved - Forester actually spent time on a naval ship doing research for this.

Now you are either going to find it fascinating to see how all these men of varied backgrounds and talents mesh together into a coherent organism or it's going to drive you crazy when Forester takes a several page diversion into the life of a Torpedo Gunner's Mate in the thick of a heated naval battle. At one point when the Artemis is in dire peril he even takes half a dozen pages on how a shell is made and the path it takes to reach a gun. The entire book takes place over the course of only a few hours, but the the back story and detail stretch it out substantially. I appreciated the approach, but be warned not to get too attached to the people - the very point of the book is that they're all important, but bit players. You may never see them again or they may die horribly. You can't expect substantial character growth as in the Hornblower novels, though there's one character who achieves some; the Captain's secretary is the only man in here who's really 'human'.

Also, as you might expect from a book written during WW2 it's a bit effusive about how well trained and brave all the British soldiers are, but the British /were/ extraordinarily brave during WW2 and in the spirit of the book I'm willing to believe that everyone on the Artemis did their job perfectly, even though Forester's books usually allow mens' foibles more severe consequences. Just let yourself sink into the book and you'll be turning the last page before you know it.

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