Five shipwrecked passengers fight panic, thirst, and the sea itself One minute, sailor Joseph Curtain is in his bunk. The next, he is submerged in the ocean. A German torpedo has struck the Aurora, and she is sinking fast. Curtain makes his way to a lifeboat and guides the survivors aboard. There are only six of them, and when the submarine's machine gun rakes the side of their boat, the number dwindles to five. Alongside Curtain are three men of various character and an elderly chaplain who is too sick to speak. Hope is slim, but Curtain will do what he must to survive. He organizes the party into watches, rationing their food and enforcing strict discipline. But as their time in the boat stretches on, Curtain realizes that this tiny craft and its flagging crew are hardly a match for the power of the ocean.
"[The Ocean] has resounding spiritual implications. . . . More than just an adventure tale, the novel traces the shaky path of human survival."
Publishers Weekly
"There are some writers who seem to have a private path into people's souls. They lead you there through unfamiliar streets . . . And yet, when you have arrived, there is no question that you are there . . . James Hanley is such a writer."
The New York Times
"[Hanley was] not British, not American, not South African, not Ebury Street, not Chicago. Just language like a good clean cyclone."
