THE CAPTAIN

by Jan de Hartog ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 28, 1966

This may well be de Hartog's most successful book since The Distant Shore (1951) and it is again a strapping, pictorial adventure story of a convoy collision course, during World War II. This time it's the Murmansk run, and the Captain, Harinxma, weathered on tugboat duty for many years, is one of de Hartog's Masefield-mariners-- ""a keen, eye-puckered hard-case seaman"" isolated by the mystique of the sea and the ships and the men who go down with them. Harinxma, transferred to ""Dutch shipping"" which proves to be international convoy duty at the start of the war, becomes a new Captain, ""Master after God-- the loneliest job in the world,"" and then is given the largest tugboat ever built to take on an Arctic salvage route, with an innocent to inimical crew. Also assigned aboard as liaison officer is a young RCNR officer, one Richard Tyler, even more resented by the men. Tyler, not only unstable but also unfit for this kind of action, spends most of his time writing letters to his young wife in the chartroom; he finds war ""moral suicide,"" and after the first exposure to action, decides that he's not interested in life if he must ""pay for it with his soul."" He is killed, protecting a kitten, under direct fire. Was it an act of courage or cowardice? Whatever, Harinxma must redeem him and he spends one involved, involving night with Tyler's widow (another sea siren-- for those who remember The Distant Shore and even more its film version, The Key; he too is obsessed and then left to face his own ""tormented man's Calvary."" .... Seen through the spume, de Hartog's narrative techniques are often slapdash, and cliches cling like barnacles to the loosely written prose. But this view from the bridge has an authority which only experience commands; there are seething seascapes and the excitement escalates. So will the book with its commercial gold stripes-- Book-of the-Month Club selection for December and Reader's Digest Condensed Book Club appearance.

Pub Date: Nov. 28, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1966

Categories: FICTION