Several years ago I had the good fortune to find a book which I described in a review here as “an absolutely fabulous, stonker of a great read.” The book was ‘Beast’ by Chris Speck, and I’ve read all of Chris’s books since then, and varied as they are, they can all be described as stonkers! Chris’s latest book is in the same tradition, but I think it may edge itself into first place – not just as a favourite, but as the best book he has written.
‘This Dark Water’ is set during the 1st World War, in the early spring of 1915. Despite enemy activity including submarines, fishing boats and their crew still head out into the dangerous waters. The British fishing fleets had lost many of their ships and crew, not to the enemy but because they have been requisitioned for the war effort. The old skipper of the Kestrel, a trawler from Hull has lost his crew – called up to serve their country, and the only men he can find are those who could not be conscripted because of age, disability or other incapacity. The trawler sets off into dangerous waters, with its inexperienced, incompetent, and pretty hopeless crew, desperate to find a good catch. The danger they face is not just on the sea, but from beneath the surface – submarines – U-boats! They are ignorant of the fact that their fears are justified, beneath them is exactly what they dread – the SM U-19, heading back to base in Wilhelmshaven.
March 1915.
The North Sea.
The Great War has raged for seven months. No one believes it will last much longer—not old Skipper Williams of the Hull trawler the Kestrel, and not Captain Joseph Krieger of the German U-boat the SM U-19.
Williams is far too old to be at sea. The Admiralty has requisitioned most of the fishing fleet, and any able-bodied man has joined up for the war effort, so the skipper is left with a misfit crew. The Humber Steam Trawling Company has offered him a lot of money to fill his fishroom, and that’s what he’ll do—to hell with this war.
The SM U-19 has just enough fuel to get back to base at Wilhelmshaven. They’ve hammered the diesel engines and sent five enemy vessels to the bottom of the sea already. Krieger and his men have been crammed inside the U-boat for nearly a month. They’re homesick, filthy, and hungry, but they can’t go home yet—not with one torpedo left to fire.
As usual with Chris’s books, I was kept up late into the night, utterly gripped by the encounter between the old fishing boat with its old captain and its motley crew, and the U-boat and its desperate submariners. The personalities of all the men involved affect what happens as the two captains engage in a struggle – the Kestrel to keep its catch and escape the submarine, the SM U-19 to destroy the little old fishing boat with its last torpedo. The personalities of the crews and the skill of the captains make the encounter dangerous for both – and there’s no telling who – if either, will survive.
I thought I knew quite a bit about WW1 – having studied it at various times during my education, and read about it since, but this was something I had only the slightest idea about. I’m in awe of the courage and suffering of the men who served their country with no defences, and whose enemies included the sea and the elements. I’m sure you’ll also be interested and completely gripped by “This Dark Water”, and if you haven’t read any of Chris’s other books, you will go looking for them!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Dark-Water-trawler-U-boat/dp/1068718315
Lois Elsden 