Shaw, Irwin "Faith at Sea"

Shaw takes a formula that was tired even back in 1943 — appendicitis at sea — and reinvigorates it in this rather sweet World War 2 short story about wartime friendship and camaraderie. Set aboard the fictitious tramp freighter S.S. ROSCOE, which has lost its convoy in the stormy North Atlantic still many days away from the safety of English waters. Shaw’s protagonists include the vessel’s Navy gunnery crew, their commanding officer (a young lieutenant) and the ROSCOE’s rather unfeeling civilian captain. The gunnery crew itself is composed of youngsters, several no older than 16 or 17, and when one of their number comes down with appendicitis it is up to the Navy officer to do an emergency operation at sea. The “faith” referred to in the story’s title refers to the trust that the young gunnery crew places in their “older” lieutenant (who’s all of 35), and that faith is ultimately justified when his operation proves a success. Viewed from a contemporary perspective, this short story reminds us that many of America’s fighting men and merchant mariners were in reality teenagers barely out of adolescence.