Read By: Tom Whitworth

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.)

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.

Download File Size:181.92 MB

---