![]() The novel received good critical notices, with a number of reviewers putting it in the same class as two other 1950s classic tales of World War II at sea, Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny and Nicholas Monsarrat's The Cruel Sea. The book sold a quarter of a million copies in hardback in England in the first six months of publication. I suppose it sounds cold blooded and calculated, but that's the way I did it. Most of the characters died, in fact only one survived the book, but when I came to the end the graph looked somewhat lopsided, there were too many people dying in the first, fifth and tenth chapters so I had to rewrite it, giving an even dying space throughout. I drew a cross square, lines down representing the characters, lines across representing chapters 1-15. Maclean later described his writing process: The book was based on real life convoys Maclean had participated in when a sailor aboard HMS Royalist. However his boat business failed so he decided to write a novel. A literary agent asked him to write a novel and Maclean originally refused, believing there was no future in it. HMS Baliol, a Type 1 Hunt-class destroyer described as "diminutive" and completely unseaworthy for the harsh weather of the North Atlantic.įurthermore, there is HMS Nairn, a River-class frigate, HMS Eager, a Fleet Minesweeper, and HMS Gannet, a Kingfisher-class sloop, nicknamed Huntley and Palmer due to her boxy superstructure resembling a biscuit tin.Īlistair Maclean had written a short story, which was published to acclaim. HMS Portpatrick, a Town-class destroyer, another obsolete World War I design. HMS Vectra and HMS Viking, World War I-vintage V and W-class destroyers. Smaller escorts included HMS Sirrus, an S-class destroyer, the most newly built warship in the escort group. Defender in particular is rendered inoperable due to a freak accident: the flight deck is partially torn off during a heavy storm. Accidents and enemy attacks conspire to remove all the aircraft carriers from service before the convoy is even halfway to Russia. Īircraft carriers Defender, Invader, Wrestler and Blue Ranger, are American-built escort carriers. Stirling is virtually untouched during most of the novel, until the final act where Stirling is repeatedly attacked by dive bombers. HMS Stirling is an obsolete World War I-era C-class cruiser of the Ceres sub-group (referred to as Cardiff Class in the novel). MacLean had served in HMS Royalist of that class. HMS Ulysses is similar to the real Dido-class cruisers. The realism of the descriptions, the believable motivations of the characters and the simplicity of the line of events make the story all the more credible, though the number of coincidental accidents that plague the crew is startling. It is their resilience that pushes these seamen to acts of heroism. Maclean's heroes are not especially motivated by ideals, they rarely excel at more than one task and they are overcome by a respectable enemy. The book uses a set of events to paint moving portrayals of the crew and the human aspects of the war. This echoes events in which British G-class destroyer HMS Glowworm and HMS Jervis Bay, an armed merchant cruiser, sacrificed themselves by engaging larger opponents. Ulysses is sunk in a failed attempt to ram a German cruiser after all her other weapons had been destroyed. All slowly reduce the convoy from 32 ships to only five. They are beset by numerous challenges: an unusually fierce Arctic storm, German ships and U-boats, as well as air attacks. Ulysses puts to sea again to escort FR-77, a vital convoy heading for Murmansk. Her crew is pushed well beyond the limits of endurance and the book starts in the aftermath of a mutiny. The novel features HMS Ulysses, a light cruiser that is well armed and among the fastest ships in the world. 7 References to HMS Ulysses in other works.6 Allusions/references from other works. ![]()
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