Herman Wouk Books

It should first be noted that the author, Herman Wouk, actually served aboard a destroyer escort (DE) during World War II. The U.S.S. Caine is such a ship and thus Mr. Wouk's depiction/description of life aboard one of these little tin cans is accurate in every detail. As a U.S. Navy veteran myself, I found it easy to picture myself walking the narrow passageways and climbing the steep, as well as narrow, ladderwells.

The story concerns a series of incidents that lead up to the captain, CDR Philip Queeg, losing his grip and being relieved of command. But, did he actually "lose it"? One of the junior officers is a scheming little snot who bears some ill feelings towards the C.O. and manipulates the circumstances to undermine the skipper's credibility in the eyes of his fellow officers.

As the story unfolds we see that while CDR Queeg is most surely not fit for command, he is done no justice by his officers. Events escalate with CDR Queeg becoming more of a mental wreck until finally, in the middle of a typhoon, he becomes catatonic forcing his being relieved of command in order to "save the ship".

The story wraps up with a court martial with charges of mutiny being levelled at the junior officers. The courtroom scene is amazingly well written with Mr. Wouk proving himself to be an excellent writer of naval fiction.