Book description
The deck of Ocean Mammoth stretched nearly a fifth of a mile from
bridge to bows; its superstructure rose above the water-line to the
height of a ten-storey building; loaded it displaced 320,000 tons. It
was among the latest and finest of the monster tankers that swarm in
ever-increasing numbers across the oceans, yet in a time of falling
freight rates and dwindling cargoes it had no useful part to play. It
had to die. but the death of a supertanker is not easily contrived if
it must appear to have been an accident.
The conspiracy to take
Ocean Mammoth to her doom involved meticulous planning an ruthless
execution. Even then the story was far from over, for who was
responsible? The formidable, withdrawn Captain Crutchley, whose secret
disability nagged incessantly at his security? Freeman Jarrett, the
flamboyantly handsome chief officer driven by relentless ambition and
boundless conceit? Foley, the capable but colourless navigation
officer, striving to hold a wife too attractive and extravagant for
his peace of mind? Or was it someone else? Some other crewman who had
access to the complex electronic system upon which the supertaker's
safety depended? These questions remained unanswered until the final
stages of the Court of Inquiry, when the truth emerges in a moment of
sudden drama.
Antony Trew commanded an escort destroyer on Russian convoys, and
wrote with total authenticity of what Winston Churchill once called the
'worst journey in the world'. He served with the South African Navy and
the Royal Navy in the South Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Western
Approaches. He was awarded the DSC. Antony Trew died in 1996
