Delilah

A SUPERB story of the officers and crew of U.S.S. Delilah, an old-fashioned destroyer stationed in Philippine waters just before our entry into the First World War — and a story, too, of the ship herself. Delilah was a poor thing as ships go, but she was their own, to be served devotedly and with passion. Such a faithful, intimate, and convincing picture of Navy life has not come our way in years. And there are unforgettable chapters — coaling ship in the tropical heat; the pursuit of a crazed, murderous seaman swimming in phosphorescent water but forever baffling his pursuers; the murderer’s return and his revenge. These are high lights in a carefully worked out and sustained narrative. You get to know the ship’s company intimately, as it you had lived in the confinement of that small world of theirs; gobs, officers — all of them are real. A remarkable book of its kind — even the most confirmed landsman could not lay it aside. R. E. D.