The Slot.
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Published: 1958
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 281
Subjects: World War, 1939-1945 -- Fiction.
Genres: Fiction.
First sentence: "Under the blue and white sky of the May morning, Brooklyn Navy Yard was ugly as a steel mill."
Description: A novel of U.S. Navy PT boats and their crews fighting the ships of the Japanese Navy during the early days of the battle for Guadalcanal in World War II, with a subplot of one young PT skipper's adulterous affair with his squadron commander's wife.
Notes: During The Second World War, author John H. Clagett was a U.S. Navy lieutenant and the skipper of PT 111, an 80-foot Elco PT boat of the same type as John F. Kennedy's famous PT 109, and fought against the Imperial Japanese Navy in the waters off Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.  PT 111 was lost in combat to enemy gunfire on February 1, 1943.  Lieutenant Clagett was severely burned on the face and arms when the boat exploded, and two crewmen were killed.  "The Slot" is partially based on his wartime experiences.