A first novel, with a basis in actual war experience, this cross sections a troop transport, from a landing at Oran to the return to New York. With little illusion and considerable perception, the accent is on portraiture, from gold braid to lower deck, There's Was Mason, assistant gunnery officer, who cannot tolerate the false forms of naval procedure; Howard, whose battle nerves lead to continual despondency and suicide; second in command, Grand, who bullies the men and mutinies against the captain; Phillips, the captain, who does not want the authority he should assume when the Commodore is taken off the ship at Oran; of Backer, the Negro, and Erlich, the German, who are never to forget their antecedents; and so on. -- A quiet, but telling overall of a ship and her men, this is effective- but probably not sufficiently so to overcome public apathy to books about the war.