Sprawling World War 2 sea tale set aboard a U.S. Coast Guard Boston beam trawler (the fictitious ARLUK) on the Greenland Patrol. While Once the novel really gets underway Sloan holds his readers attention. Of particular merchant marine interest are descriptions of an encounter with the troop and civilian workers transport ship DORCHESTER a year before her tragic sinking. Also of note is the gruesome discovery of a machine-gun riddled lifeboat filled with dead mariners, victims of a German attack on a merchant marine convoy. Much of the novel is devoted to the ARLUKs ultimately successful effort to locate and destroy a series of east coast Greenland weather stations manned by Germans as well as the supply ships which service the clandestine weather stations.
Having served in the USCG in Viet Nam, the story had special meaning. A small piece of WWII, author Sloan Wilson narates a very entertaining and belable chronicle of a little know segment of the Atlantic battle against Germany. Excellent reading and looking forward to finding his sequal - Pcific Interlude.
