First published 1968
Captain Anthony Bradell commands the S.S. San Pedro, a aging cargo vessel plying trade routes through the Caribbean. When a hurricane strikes without warning, Bradell must navigate treacherous seas while his ship takes on water and his crew grows increasingly desperate. The engine room floods as massive waves batter the hull. Bradell fights to maintain order among passengers and crew as the vessel lists dangerously. Radio communications fail just as rescue seems possible. The captain faces impossible choices about who might survive as lifeboats prove insufficient. Cozzens places readers directly into the chaos of a maritime disaster, where split-second decisions determine life and death. The novel explores how ordinary people respond when stripped of civilization's comforts and forced to confront mortality at sea.
Genres: fiction, 20th-century, adventure, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: man-vs-nature, survival
Setting: Caribbean, S.S. San Pedro
Period: 20th-century
Hardcover · Harcourt
Content warnings: death, graphic-violence