Hawkins, John "Devil on His Trail"
Co-authored with Ward Hawkins (1912- ). Seven part Post serial, later published as a book (see next entry). Interesting hybrid of a sea tale, with half being told in “real time” aboard a lifeboat in the South Pacific after the sinking of the freighter ISAAC JONES by the Japanese and the other half in flashbacks set primarlily in Portland, Ore., where the story’s anti-hero lived before going to sea as a merchant seaman. On land (and often at sea), the hero, has been misunderstood in a manner that seems to almost prefigure James Dean by a good ten years. The sea elements of the story do, however, ring authentic, particularly with the authors’ description of Black Gang life aboard an aging freighter. The Hawkins write of their low-man-on-the-totem-pole hero:
“Joe found himself remembering how he had once thought everyone who went to sea was a sailor. On deck you were a sailor. Below, you were just a guy who worked in an engine room — the engine room of a factory, save that it pitched and rolled. Engines were all right if you worked with them. But the wipers didn’t. The wipers were the janitors of the place. They cleaned up. They painted. They did all the dirty jobs the storekeeper could dream up”-- p. 78, June 17, 1944 serial installment.
Also, quite impressive is the multi-page description of the ISAAC JONES under attack by Japanese bombers and fighter planes. This realism, alas, clashes with the story’s weak point — the improbable events which see our hero’s “girl” showing up as a newly-commissioned WAC in San Francisco and then boarding the ISAAC JONES for that vessel’s ill-fated last trip across the Pacific. An interesting (from 2001) subplot/theme then develops with Joe being upset that his possible wife-to-be had actually taken it upon herself to enlist in the military without his knowledge or permission. Do Joe and his girl survive their lifeboat ordeal? Do they marry in the end? You’ll have to trudge through all seven installments of this serial yourself to find out! Later (see below) published as a novel.