LA ROSE DE LA MER: ""Rose Of the Sea

This is the Prix FÉmina, and again a disappointment, this story of the last voyage of a battered tub, the Rose de la Ner. Owned by a boy and his uncle, the uncle plans to sail the boat, which no longer brings in anything, with a faked cargo and sink it, to collect a sizeable amount of insurance. The nephew, who has always hated his uncle, agrees halfheartedly to the plan. When a woman stowaway aboard gives birth to a child, and then dies, the boy realizes his obligation to the child and determines to murder his uncle to thwart his homicidal scheme. He does so, and forfeits his own life for that of the child -- and the crew he has saved. Hard on the surface, but with undercurrents of sentiment and nobility.