The Captain Author:Jan de Hartog This is a novel of the sea and it is on a grand scale. Its setting is, chiefly, the Murmansk run during the World War II, surely one of the cruelest tests to which men and ships have ever been put, and on one of the cruelest of seas. Its major theme is the making of a captain, that process by which -- in war as in peace -- a man is m... more »easured by the sea, by ships, by his fellows and by himself until it is shown that he has what it takes to stand responsible, after God, for the little world of a ship and the souls it contains. Alongside this theme are others, similarly compelling: the search of a young man for a way to express his love in a world gone mad; the effort of a woman to raise a child in a way that will enable him to find his own truth; the struggle of men to preserve themselves and yet achieve brotherhood. Above all, there is the grip of this epic drams, told by a master of story who is also a seeker after truth and an explorer of the soul. There have been many stories of the sea and of war and the making of a captain, but few indeed with the sweep, the power, the majesty and the illumination of this one.« less