The Cruel Sea (1953) By Nicholas Monsarrat
 
The Cruel Sea is a 1951 novel by Nicholas Monsarrat. It follows the lives of a group of Royal Navy sailors fighting the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War. It contains seven chapters, each describing a year during the war.
 
The novel, based on the author's experience of serving in corvettes and frigates in the North Atlantic in the Second World War, gives a matter-of-fact but moving portrayal of ordinary men learning to fight and survive in a violent, exhausting battle against the elements and a ruthless enemy.
 
Lieutenant Commander Nicholas John Turney Monsarrat FRSL RNVR (22 March 1910 8 August 1979) was a British novelist known today for his sea stories, particularly The Cruel Sea (1951) and Three Corvettes (1942 45), but perhaps best known internationally for his novels, The Tribe That Lost Its Head and its sequel, Richer Than All His Tribe.
 
Though a pacifist, Monsarrat served in World War II, first as a member of an ambulance brigade, and then as a member of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR).
 
His lifelong love of sailing made him a capable naval officer, and he served with distinction in a series of small warships (corvettes and frigates), assigned to escort convoys and protect them from enemy attack. Monsarrat ended the war as the commander of a frigate and drew on his wartime experience in his postwar sea stories. 
 
Hard Cover
416 pages 
In Fair to Good condition