The Captain

In a novel of rare distinction, Jan De Hartog tells of a man's baptism by fire on the suicidal Murmansk convoys of World War II. To be "Master after God" of a mammoth rescue vessel was a job the young Captain neither wanted or felt he could handle. But as Captain, he must stand up to the horrors of ocean war while suffering the anguish of a sudden strange involvement with a woman he would rather forget.

Amidst a superbly exciting drama of war at sea this young man learns to question the meaning of courage, cowardice, conscience---and of war itself. In his struggle in his own soul, THE CAPTAIN is every young man today---and his war is every war.