The Captain [Paperback]

Jan De Hartog (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: New English Library Ltd; New edition edition (September 7, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0450038785
• ISBN-13: 978-0450038785
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,924,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mind-gripping story of the Battle of the Atlantic, May 29, 2000

By 

Joe (Southern Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Captain (Hardcover)

This book is simply excellent. The protagonist is not some matinee-idol Navy captain, but a chubby Dutch tugboat master who is pressed into service, along with his huge tug and green crew, as a rescue ship in the Atlantic convoy routes. De Hartog's characters are some of the most believeable I have ever encountered, and the emotional impact of the book hits at gut-level. It is a complex but easily readable story. Anyone who loves books about men and the sea will be right at home with this one, and war buffs will be fully satisfied. I've read the book four times, and writing this review makes me want to read it again!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest novels ever written., September 28, 2000

By 

D. R. Schryer (Poquoson, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Captain (Great War Stories) (Paperback)

Superficially, The Captain is a very well written novel about life aboard a sea-going tugboat pressed into service as an escort vessel for convoys to Brtitain in the early days of World War II. Read at this level, The Captain is a rousing, highly-readable adventure story with interesting, well-developed characters. But there is much more than rousing adventure to this book which skillfully probes many deeply-fundamental matters, including the horrors of war and the true nature of human courage. In my opinion, this is one of the most greatest novels ever written.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a MUST-READ for Merchant Marine vets, May 15, 2000

By 

Chapulina R (Tovarischi Imports, USA/RUS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Captain (Hardcover)

My Dad was a US Merchant Marine skipper in WWll, a veteran of the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk runs. He loved this book so much he read it every year. And he made sure his kids read it, so that we would understand. This book contains a harrowing fictionalized account of the most disasterous, ill-fated North Atlantic convoy, PQ-17. Told from the first-person, the protagonist is the young Dutch Captain of an ocean-going tug, which served as a rescue-vessel in the Allied convoy formation. All of Jan De Hartog's books about the sea are excellent. It's a shame so many are out-of-print. This one is my favorite. If you can find a copy through one of Amazon's affiliates or auctions, or even at the public library, grab it and savor it!