Nicholas Monsarrat (1910–1979)

No author writing today, fiction or non-fiction, about the Battle of the Atlantic could match the authenticity of one who served and wrote this novel less than five years after the end of World War II. It is very raw and very real. Nicholas Monsarrat presented this as fiction, but it is easy to read him into the character of Lockhart, to view this as an amalgamation of his own recollections and the stories he heard from others.

Fiction may have provided him outlet to share and expose what show more perhaps he could not more openly address in any other way: the creeping fear of death, the horrors witnessed, post-traumatic stress, anxiety about women left at home, the outrage with soft-living types who didn't appreciate their sacrifice, and the impossibility of conveying these feelings to their loved ones while on leave, knowing they must soon face the strain again and fearing any loosening of their mettle.

I thought I'd heard all the horrors of war, but this was a whole new set to me. I thought submarines had it much worse, with their cramped and claustrophobic conditions, but it was really no better for those on the surface who felt their wretched vulnerability every moment at sea. Here are described months and months of convoy losses, hundreds of lives, with not a single submarine sinking to stand in the balance. Convoys that left port in strength, and arrived at their destination only a third their original size.

I'm only listing some dry facts. Read the novel and all of this comes to life, placing you there with the sailors, experiencing what they experienced, witnessing the personal costs. Even as fiction this serves as a fine testament, helping us never to forget what this generation sacrificed to do what they did. show less

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 show more 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? show less

Published in 1951 a mere six years after the end of the second world war, this is a novel of historical fiction that tells the story and role of the smaller boats that formed the protective screen around the convoys that made regular crossings of the Atlantic ocean during the second world war. The strength of the novel lays in its depiction of the work and conditions aboard Corvettes and then Frigates who were in almost constant danger from german submarine (U boat) attacks and from the show more horrendous nautical conditions during the winter months. Monsarrat focuses on his leading character Keith Lockhart who held various posts on both types of boat under the command of a professional navy officer Ericson with whom he forged a good working relationship.

The novel follows Lockhart's journey through the war years from his initial posting as an officer recruited from a career in journalism at the start of the war until his position as first lieutenant in a new frigate at the end of hostilities. Monsarrat own career during the war followed a similar path and while the novel is not an autobiography, Monsarrat uses his experience to paint a picture of life on the high seas during wartime. He tells a story full of danger and adversity spiced with memorable seascapes and impossible working conditions. Lockhart's first boat the Compass Rose was one of the early corvettes which first took to the sea equipped with a small gun and depth charges, but without any radar and proved to be a soft target for the German U Boats. The corvette struggled in rough seas and its crew of ninety endured very cramped conditions, with more injuries caused by weather conditions than from hostile forces, but in danger on every trip of being sunk with perhaps the loss of all on board. Monsarrat's skills as a writer create a realistic picture of the struggle against superior forces and the toughness of the men to survive the attacks and the hard learned skills of officers who have to make life or death decisions. He creates plenty of tension and excitement.

While the novel also attempts to show relationships between the officers and sometimes between them and the ordinary ratings this is not its strongest point. It is good on a fairly superficial level and shows the teamwork needed to survive the awful conditions, but there is little in depth of characterisation and sometimes it feels a little corny. Where women do feature it is as lovers and wives of the men and one particular episode could qualify as a contender for the best "bad sex" episode of the year, remembering that the year is 1951. It could be said that Monsarrat never gets far beneath the oil skins. Where the novel ca appear even more unstuck when read today is when it strays into an insidious patriotism. I fully understand that people signing up for the war effort were brave and patriotic, but one gets the feeling when talking about other nations that Monsarrat is merely mouthing the xenophobia that was in existence at the time.

Reading the novel gives a seemingly authentic account of the struggle to keep the convoy system in operation across the Atlantic during the war and as such provides an historical retelling as seen through the eyes of one of its participants. Conditions on board the small boats were both difficult and horrifying and Monsarrat does not spare his readers some of the more gruesome details. This was a wartime situation and Monsarrat's descriptions would be vivid enough to put the book into the anti-war camp for many readers. A cruel sea, a cruel war and an intolerable strain on the men who had to survive the conditions. Its not great literature: its all a bit too episodic for that, but it places the reader inside those small ships amongst the stink of oil and seawater to create an exciting account and a 4 star read. show less

I picked up this lovely 1955 novel more than a dozen years ago. I think the pretty cover seduced me. I found this to be a very enjoyable gothic mystery/romance/suspense and not the sort of thing I usually read. Thomas Welles is a down on his luck American author writing in Nice, France who is out of money. A couple with a scheme persuades him to be an assistant, a man Friday, and away we go. Tom is in the dark for quite a while. He does not seem to really sense that Paul and Anna and their show more friend Hugo are up to some sort of shady business. They insist they are not but cannot tell him what it is, only that no one will be hurt. Anna's repeated attempts to apparently seduce Tom begin to get his worry going and he resists temptation. Tom meets a girl in a park he visits and then the adventure really picks up.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. Reminded me just a little bit of one of Mary Stewart's gothic suspense novels, which I do like. The romantic in me was very happy with the ending here. show less