Upon Dark Waters by Robert Radcliffe
31st December 1942. In the middle of the North Atlantic, the deadly 'gap' where aircraft cannot protect them, a destroyer and 4 corvettes are shepherding a convoy of ships from America to Britain. But as midnight passes, the New Year is marked by a white flash on the horizon - a German torpedo. What follows is a night scarred forever in the memory of its survivors.
But for Michael Villiers, officer on the HMS Daisy, it is just another chapter in an extraordinary life. The son of a beautiful socialite and a British diplomat, Michael is brought up in Sombreado, Uruguay alongside his guardian's daughter Maria, and the pair are inseparable. Even when he is sent to school in England, the family ranch remains Michael's home and when his schooling is complete, there is never any doubt that he will return to Sombreado, to Maria.
But when Michael returns to Montevideo in 1939, his steamer crosses paths with a German warship - an ominous sign of the conflict to come. And though Uruguay is neutral in the coming conflict, Michael is to be allowed no such. The British Legation want him to make the most of his family connections. In a war, the English ambassador explains, everyone has to take sides . . .
The book is the story of two men, Stephen Tomlin, a midshipman aboard the corvette, the HMS Daisy, and, the Number Two officer, Michael Villiers, from Uruguay.
Given its title, one would think that the larger part of the story would be set at sea, but it’s the shorter part which takes place there. Set in their present, the two men are brought together by the war. Assigned to the corvette, they must fight for their lives against the “wolf pack,” the fleet of German U-boats that hound the convoy they protect.
The larger part of the book deals with Michael Villiers, and of his boyhood spent at the family ranch in Uruguay. But his life is upended by the sudden departure of his family to his father’s home in England. It is there that he grows to manhood. But though he feels that he’s Uruguayan, he’ll find that both countries have a hold on him.
It’s an excellent and lyrically written tale of love and loyalty; of finding oneself, and knowing who you are.
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MAY - Library, Dark, Drown, Ex, Iron, Done, Love, Stranger
Upon Dark Waters by Robert Radcliffe