Forester’s novel is on a par with Nicholas Monsarrat’s “The Cruel Sea”and D. A. Rayner’s “The Long Haul.” It follows the course of a convoy of freighters and tankers as it encounters a u-boat wolf pack in the western approaches to Great Britain. Forester’s central character is George Krause, an American destroyer commander in his mid-40s who is in command of the convoy’s four-ship escort. Krause is a professional sailor who has been at sea for thirteen years in a twenty-year career, and who is encountering naval combat for the first time. Krause is a religious man, and his thinking is studded with biblical references, but the references are all highly descriptive of his situation. They are integral to his character. He is a very competent leader without much charisma, but his stern commitment to duty, a feature also reflected in the biblical allusions, is compelling.
