Three big blows awaited a Liberty ship whose latest name was the Leicester, bound in ballast from London to New York. Prudently abandoned by her surviving crew after she became not much more than a crazily side-floating derelict, the Leicester became both prize and menace to all who shared her amazing fate. Mr. Mowat is an uncommonly skillful hand at untangling tales of modern men's struggles with elemental furies. Your main attention here is centered on his headlong narrative of repeated catastrophes in a hundred-day ordeal. At the same time he gives you remarkable sketches of the rivalries within the sea-rescue business and of men employed by it.
Heroism is a part of their trade.
If they were not prepared to exercise it on demand the sea lanes would be a lot emptier. Putting his story together from many sources, Mr. Mowat seems to think of everything that can possibly be germane. There are likely to be gaps in that vital information, as there are in wartime G-2 work. And, as in wartime G-2 procedure, the people who most desperately need to know what's afoot may not know it or be able to use it in time. And although years of experience had shown that the ballasting arrangements on Libertys was pretty far from ideal, that problem was still being tackled, apparently, by improvisation.