Andersen, Uell Stanley The Smoldering Sea.

Not for the squeamish. A realistic and quite often brutal depiction of merchant marine life during the early days after America’s entry into World War 2. Andersen, who himself had served as a merchant seaman and later as an executive officer aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer, sets his novel aboard the ROBIN WEST, a "ninety-day-wonder" Liberty ship. Her commander, Captain Ransel, is an ex-Navy officer who had been court-martialed earlier for ploughing his destroyer aground in heavy fog and could now only gain command of a cargo ship. The ROBIN WEST initially sails west with a cargo of munitions to Hawaii and then on to the South Pacific in convoy. After a brief spell in Brisbane, Australia she joins a massive convoy headed for Guadalcanal, where she meets her end after having been attacked by and then fatally ramming a Japanese submarine. Along the way Ransel displays esclating episodes of madness, almost Queeg-like in intensity, that undermine crew morale. His fellow officers are depicted as angry, foul-mouthed, violent men - all incapable taking command. One interesting subplot depicts the uneasy relations between World War 2 merchant seamen and the Navy personnel commanding and manning the guns aboard merchant vessels. Another subplot revolves around the ROBIN WEST’s steward and his (unsuccessful) attempt at pursuing a homosexual "friendship" with a Navy gunnery officer aboard. Also of interest is Andersen’s almost lyrical description of the ROBIN WEST sailing north from Brisbane to join the Guadalcanal-bound convoy:
"Gradually a sense of impending events crept over the ship. The men began to feel the surge and flow of the great force they were caught in. And when, in the afternoon of the third day at sea, they saw for the first time the vast array of cargo vessels they were joining, the full magnitude of the entire operation hit them with a shock. The ROBIN WEST took station as the last ship in the port column, and her escorting destroyer swung into position in the anti-submarine screen. Over the ocean the ships spread, steaming directly into the north. It seemed impossible that such a vast force could move so silently, but there wasn’t a sound on the sea, no wind, no waves, nothing - just the many silent ships sliding quietly through the water, heading north"-- pp. 270-271.