Gilpatric, Guy Action in the North Atlantic

Surprisingly flat World War 2 convoy novel by this well-respected maritime author. Gilpatric, of course, is best known for his comedic creation, that standby of The Saturday Evening Post, cranky Scots Chief Engineer Colin Glencannon (see succeeding entries). Here, however, there’s no comedy (and no Glencannon) and Gilpatric produces a stale, often stilted novel focusing on the eastbound voyage of the fictitious C-2 freighter MERCHANT MARINER from Halifax across the North Atlantic to Murmansk. Interestingly enough, the work was turned into a rousing 1943 movie starring Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey and Alan Hale, and Gilpatric was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay version of the novel. Novel and movie came out at about the same time, and the novel features still photographs from the movie.