This is the story of Martinus Harinxma, who starts his seafaring career as a tugboat officer in the Netherlands. When WW2 breaks out, he ends up as captain of a tug being used as a rescue boat on the convoys to Murmansk, Russia. He learns how to grow into a leadership role, faces the horrors of war, and becomes entangled in a tricky personal relationship.

I found this a highly absorbing book. It describes in straightforward but occasionally fanciful prose the mix of danger and boredom that is life at sea during the war. The narrator’s voice is consistent throughout and the reader builds a fairly strong sympathy with him. I say fairly strong because I found the personal relationship awkward and strange. But the life at sea won me over in the end. I also strongly approved of a character being from Canada, specifically Kenora (spelled “Kinora” in the book, but that’s probably how the guy’s Canadian accent would have sounded to Harinxma, so I’ll allow it), and there’s even a part of the story set in Halifax!

I’d recommend this book if you liked Alistair MacLean’s HMS Ulysses and possibly Hugh MacLennan’s Barometer Rising, which is set during the First War but would have similar port-city-in-wartime vibes. ( )

boek is feitelijk een bewerking van het boek "Mary". ( )

Zoals zijn andere boeken over de zeevaart vond ik dit eveneens de moeite waard. ( )

One of my all time favorite books. ( )

adventure ( )