Hard to believe, but the bloody war’s over. Lieutenant Kelly McGuire distinguished himself as much as he was able, but it wasn’t much of a naval war, the Great One. But while the big war might be over, peace isn’t quite the word for parts of the world at the moment, especially the bit around the Black Sea. Russia is killing millions of its own in a civil war, and the government of Turkey is about to fall to Ataturk, who like the shah of Iran decades later will decide that Progress and Modernity depend on mandatory rules about the hats people are allowed to wear. Worse yet, Kelly’s girl back home has stopped writing him, apparently frustrated by the fact that he still doesn’t want to get hitched — worried that the admiralty will decide that an officer married to anyone but the service doesn’t merit promotion. With so many young officers being dumped into civvie life, it’s a chance he can’t take, even knowing he might lose the woman he’s known all his life. Charley’s a fine girl, but his life, his love and his lady is the sea. Sure enough, he’s assigned to a new posting, but between hurricanes and another war in China, there’s no shortage of threats to life and limb on offer, including a man-eating widow in Shanghai who is especially dangerous to young officers nursing broken hearts and bruised egos. Kelly is no more the young lad he was in The Lion at Sea: his relationship with Charley is especially complex here, and interestingly his old antagonist from academy days becomes practically a comrade-in-arms here, and Kelly matures from an ambitious young man to an officer whose shoulders are burdened not just with epaulets, but concern over his crew — either in battle or in the pay line, since struggling economies make it hard for working-class sailors to keep their families fed. All this growing up makes since when a reader sits back and realizes that this volume is covering the entire inter-war period, beginning with the surrender of the High Seas Fleet (Hochseeflotte) at the end of the War, and ending with the rise of Hitler. I liked that Hennessey made it episodic, and this novel was particularly interesting because so many of the incidents it covers are bits of history I’ve never heard of, like the Invergorden mutiny. China in this era is extremely chaotic: not united, but on the path to being so with nationalism fueling different figures like Kai-Chek. This was thoroughly enjoyable, and I’m sorry it’s been four years since I visited Hennessy: he’s good with characters, dialogue is snappy, and the action is always solid.

Highlights:

Kelly sighed. ‘It’s never been my habit to refuse when I’ve been told to volunteer, sir.’ The admiral’s smile grew wider and he rose. ‘A very good idea, too,’ he said briskly.

“I’m a great one for humanity. It’s people I don’t like very much.”

‘Might not come to massacre,’ Verschoyle said cheerfully. ‘They might not kill everybody. Just you.’

‘Can’t face their ancestors without their heads,’ Balodin said dryly. ‘They’d lose face.’ He gave a stiff smile. ‘No pun intended, of course.’

‘You seem to be very much the strong silent type, Commander.’
‘It’s a strong silent service, Mrs. Withinshawe.’

Captain Harrison didn’t make life any easier. He was a rigid disciplinarian punctilious about side parties and greetings and, a man of private means, it was his delight to point out to Kelly that, unlike most married officers, he preferred not to spend too much time ashore. ‘I’ve been married thirteen years,’ he liked to say, ‘but my wife has learned to do without me.’ ‘Perhaps she prefers it that way,’ was the first lieutenant’s opinion.

“Everything’s permissible there. Even meetings between old lovers, and you and I will always be a special case. We once committed murder together and that forges a link that’s difficult to break.’

“You may be hell on wheels as a sailor, Kelly, but as a hearts and flowers type you’re an absolute dead loss.”

Related:
The Lion at Sea, McGuire’s first appearance. WW1 naval antics
Falling into Battle, Andrew Wareham. More WW1 naval.