The Cruel Sea

by Nicholas Monsarrat

  ‘On, sir!’ said Raikes.

  ‘Slow astern, both!’ Ericson called out, and then, as Saltash gathered gentle sternway, enough to lay out the cable in a straight line on the sea bottom, he said: ‘Stop both . . . Let go!’

  Allingham raised his hand in acknowledgement, and repeated the order to his leading-hand. There was a clunk as the stopper was knocked off, and the anchor plunged down with a rattle and a roar, waking the echoes all round them, making the seabirds chatter and cry. The ripples spread, and faded: Saltash came to a stop, tugging gently.

  ‘Got her cable, sir!’ Allingham called out to the bridge.

  Ericson drew a deep breath, stretching a little under his duffle coat. That was all . . . Over his shoulder he said: ‘Ring off main engines.’

  7

  Though the rest of the upper deck had long been deserted, Lockhart was not surprised to find Ericson up on the bridge: the big figure, looming suddenly out of the darkness, did not startle him at all. He might have guessed where the Captain would be, at this closing hour . . . Ericson turned when he heard his step, and said: ‘Hello, Number One,’ as if he too were unsurprised. They stood side by side in the cold darkness, saying nothing for a space, sharing the moment of relaxation and the grateful calm round them.

  It was still early evening, but by now it was almost dark; the moon was already entangled in the rigging, and one by one the shore lights were coming on – the stars of peace, the first lights since the beginning of the war. The edge of the loch could be seen, and the shadowy hills above it: astern of them, the clutch of U-boats lay silent and immovable – solid black patches on the restless water. Outside their sheltered haven the wind moaned, as if still greedy for Saltash, and in the far distance the cruel sea beat and thrashed at the entrance to the loch.

  Lockhart knew why they were standing there together, leaning against the side of the bridge under the frosty open sky, though he was not sure that the moment could be adequately honoured. They were there because it was the last day of the war they had shared: the Atlantic battle was done with, and secretly they wanted to review it, even if it were by vague allusion only, even if no word were spoken. It was a time to draw the threads together – but perhaps, thought Lockhart, there were too many threads to this story: perhaps there was too much to be said, and to say it would entail a foolish babbling which the moment did not deserve . . . But then this man, for whom he had such an enormous affection, would not babble, would not cheapen.

  ‘Five years, it’s taken,’ said Ericson suddenly. ‘Getting on for six . . . I wonder how far we’ve steamed.’

  ‘I added it up for Compass Rose,’ said Lockhart, grateful for the lead. ‘Ninety-eight thousand miles . . . But I never did it for Saltash. It seemed to be unlucky.’

  The noises of the ship rose vaguely to them: as was usual in harbour, somewhere a radio was playing, somewhere a small wave curled and broke against their hull, somewhere a heavy-stepping quartermaster made his rounds. Now the U-boats, the black shadows with no more fear in them, were caught in the track of the moon, and held there for their pleasure.

  ‘I wish some of the others could have seen this,’ said Lockhart, presently. ‘John Morell. Ferraby.’

  Ericson nodded. ‘Yes, they deserved it.’

  Lockhart, drawing some lost names from the shadows of his mind, murmured aloud: ‘Tallow. Leading-Seaman Phillips. Wells.’

  ‘Who was Wells?’ asked Ericson.

  ‘The yeoman in Compass Rose.’

  ‘Oh yes . . .’

  ‘He used to say to his signalmen: “If you get worried, just sing out and I’ll be up straight away”.’

  ‘This is the time that you miss them.’

  ‘M’m . . . But perhaps there are really too many people, to remember them properly. The names are just labels, in the end. Young Baker. Rose. Tonbridge. Carslake. All those chaps in Sorrel. And the Wrens we lost, on that bad Gibraltar convoy.’

  ‘Julie Hallam,’ said Ericson suddenly, trying it for the first time.

  ‘Yes, Julie . . .’ For Lockhart’s surprised heart, a twinge, and then nothing again. Perhaps, after a year, she really slept now, and he as well. It had been much the same with Compass Rose: there must be a special kind of war memory – showing mercy in fading quickly, drowning for ever under the weight of sorrow.

  ‘You didn’t get any medals,’ said Ericson inconsequently. ‘But I did my best for you.’

  Lockhart smiled in the darkness. ‘I can bear it.’

  ‘You deserved something, Number One.’

  ‘I can still bear it . . . Remember when we had that lunch in London, and I said I wanted to stay with you in Saltash?’

  ‘Yes. Made a lot of difference to me.’

  ‘Same here.’

  One thread, at least, was tied: one of the things they had not been going to say was happily said after all.

  Ericson sighed again. ‘And we only sank three U-boats. Three, in five years.’

  ‘We worked hard enough for them, God knows.’

  ‘Yes.’ Ericson brooded, leaning heavily against a corner of the bridge where he must have spent many hundreds of hours. Out of the deep dusk he said – and after sixty-eight months it was still a shock to hear him use the words: ‘I must say I’m damned tired.’

  Hermanus, Cape Province – Johannesburg, Transvaal

  April 1948 – May 1950

  Synopses of Nicholas Monsarrat Titles

  Published by House of Stratus

  A Fair Day's Work

  Liverpool Docks, on Merseyside - a senseless strike threatens to delay the departure of an ocean liner. As the last of the passengers come aboard, including the shipping line's chairman, the drama increases with the threatened walk-out of the stewards. Below deck, agitation and unrest mount as the tide water rises and the vital hour for sailing approaches.

  H.M.S. Marlborough Will Enter Harbour

  In H.M.S. Marlborough Will Enter Harbour, an old sloop, homeward bound, is torpedoed, leaving her guns out of action, more than three-quarters of her crew dead, and radio contact impossible. But her valiant captain steadfastly refuses to surrender his ship… In Leave Cancelled, an army officer and his young wife concentrate their passionate love into twenty-four hours, knowing that it might be their last chance… And in Heavy Rescue, an old soldier, having lived on the scrap heap for more than twenty years, finds that gallantry is once again in demand when he becomes leader of a Heavy Rescue Squad…

  Life Is A Four Letter Word

  Breaking In is the first part of the autobiography of one of the most successful writers of the twentieth century, Nicholas Monsarrat. Monsarrat describes his privileged childhood in Liverpool, where his father was the greatest surgeon of his time, recalling all the small details of a provincial upbringing. The account of his days at public school are acidly described, and in remarkable contrast to his golden days at Cambridge, where he enjoyed good friends, good wine and little work. At twenty-three, Monsarrat turned his back on his comfortable family home, fled from the desk of his uncle's solicitor's office, and settled in a single, mildewed room in London, with a typewriter and a half-finished manuscript. Here, he describes the years of learning to write, learning to live and learning to love – invaluable lessons for a future which comprised war, emigration, marital upheaval and the hazards of artistic achievement. The second part, Breaking Out, takes us up to the year in which Monsarrat produced the novel widely acclaimed as his finest, The Tribe That Lost Its Head; the year when he was living in Ottawa as Chief of the British Information Services; the year he calls 'The Year of the Stupid Ox'. As Monsarrat charts the first half of his life with astonishing frankness, we are given a stunning portrait of this complex character, this brilliant storyteller.

  The Master Mariner

  He will not die. He will wander the wild waters until all the seas run dry.

  A young Devon sailor, Matthew Lawe, is cursed after a spectacular act of cowardice to wander the wild waters till all the seas run dry.
In this, Nicholas Monsarrat's final masterpiece, Lawe represents the spirit of maritime exploration and fortitude; his life is the thread stringing together a long history of nautical adventure. Written in two volumes, the first of which appeared in 1978, the story encompasses the full extent of maritime development, beginning with Sir Francis Drake abandoning a game of bowls to fight the great crescent of the Spanish fleet, to the opening in 1960 of the St Lawrence Seaway, the farthest penetration of land ever made by ocean-going sailors. Nicholas Monsarrat died before he had completed the second volume, but his notes and outlines are included here with an introduction written by Ann Monsarrat, his wife, to provide a satisfying end to Matthew Lawe's epic wanderings.

  The Nylon Pirates

  Alcestis, a British luxury liner, moored in New York and bound on a cruise to the Caribbean, South America and Africa, awaits her exclusive passengers - businessmen with mid-life crises, large bank balances and unforgiving wives; legacy-laden women looking for love and adventure; and divorcees with settlements to squander. But another group of passengers threatens to upset their opulent trip. These are the twentieth-century pirates - suave, elegant, discreet and utterly unscrupulous, with a singular purpose in mind and a collection of ruthless strategies.

  The Pillow Fight

  Passion, conflict and infidelity are vividly depicted in this gripping tale of two people and their marriage. Set against the glittering background of glamorous high life in South Africa, New York and Barbados, an idealistic young writer tastes the corrupting fruits of success, while his beautiful, ambitious wife begins to doubt her former values. A complete reversal of their opposing beliefs forms the bedrock of unremitting conflict. Can their passion survive the coming storm…?

  Richer Than All His Tribe

  The sequel to The Tribe That Lost Its Head is a compelling story which charts the steady drift of a young African nation towards bankruptcy, chaos and barbarism. On the island of Pharamaul, a former British Protectorate, newly installed Prime Minister, Chief Dinamaula, celebrates Independence Day with his people, full of high hopes for the future. But the heady euphoria fades and Dinamaula's ambitions and ideals start to buckle as his new found wealth corrupts him, leaving his nation to spiral towards hellish upheaval and tribal warfare.

  Smith & Jones

  Within the precarious conditions of the Cold War, diplomats Smith and Jones are not to be trusted. But although their files demonstrate evidence of numerous indiscretions and drunkenness, they have friends in high places who ensure that this doesn't count against them, and they are sent across the Iron Curtain. However, when they defect, the threat of absolute treachery means that immediate and effective action has to be taken. At all costs and by whatever means, Smith and Jones must be silenced.

  Something To Hide

  An act of kindness has grave consequences in this heart-rending novel about a young girl, pregnant and abandoned, and the man who helps her. When decent, compassionate Carter takes pity on this young girl, he is quickly drawn into an ordeal beyond his control. Succumbing first to her desperate cries for help, and then to her threats, he agrees to let her spend the night in his flat. Aided only by his own unskilled hands, she gives birth to a sickly baby. For Carter, the anguish has only just begun, as he witnesses a traumatic chain of events unfold.

  The Story Of Esther Costello

  In a small Irish village, young Esther Costello, victim of a tragic accident that has left her deaf, dumb and blind, is kept barely alive by hardhearted parents. Discovered by a well-meaning American tourist, who is appalled by Esther's shocking condition, she is whisked away to America for treatment. But all the advances of American medicine are unable to bring about a cure and with unceasing devotion, her patron decides to devote her life to Esther's care. But a nationwide campaign to raise public awareness eventually results in donations being diverted to the woman's personal account, and in a harrowing twist to the tale, Esther's faculties are restored, with shocking consequences.

  This Is The Schoolroom

  The turbulent Thirties, and all across Europe cry the discordant voices of hunger and death, most notably in Spain, where a civil war threatens to destroy the country. Aspiring writer, Marcus Hendrycks, has toyed with life for twenty-one years. His illusions, developed within a safe, cloistered existence in Cambridge, are shattered forever when he joins the fight against the fascists and is exposed to a harsh reality. As the war takes hold, he discovers that life itself is the real schoolroom.

  The Time Before This

  On the icy slopes of the great ice-mountain of Bylot Island, set against the metallic blue of the Canadian Arctic sky, Shepherd has a vision of the world as it used to be, before the human race was weakened by stupidity and greed. Peter Benton, the young journalist to whom Shepherd tells his story, is dramatically snapped out of his cozy cynicism and indolent denial of responsibility, to face a dreadful reality. He discovers that he can no longer take a back-seat in the rapid self-destruction of the world, and is forced to make a momentous decision.

  The Tribe That Lost Its Head

  Five hundred miles off the southwest coast of Africa lies the island of Pharamaul, a British Protectorate, governed from Whitehall through a handful of devoted British civilians. In the south of the island lies Port Victoria, dominated by the Governor's palatial mansion; in the north, a settlement of mud huts shelter a hundred thousand natives; and in dense jungle live the notorious Maula tribe, kept under surveillance by a solitary District Officer and his young wife. When Chief-designate, Dinamaula, returns from his studies in England with a spirited desire to speed the development of his people, political crisis erupts into a ferment of intrigue and violence.

  The White Rajah

  The breathtaking island of Makassang, in the Java Sea, is the setting for this tremendous historical novel. It is a place both splendid and savage, where piracy, plundering and barbarism are rife. The ageing Rajah, threatened by native rebellion, enlists the help of Richard Marriott - baronet's son-turned-buccaneer - promising him a fortune to save his throne. But when Richard falls in love with the Rajah's beautiful daughter, the island, and its people, he find himself drawn into a personal quest to restore peace and prosperity.

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