Author's note: 'Few of the characters and none of the incidents in this story are imaginary. Only the names are changed; of men because many of them are married now, and they had enough conflict then without my making more for them in Civvy street. Those nights in the Gut of Malta and Sister Street of Alexandria are best left locked within memory - unless as here, they are cloaked under assumed names. As for plot, there's not much of it, in the accepted sense of novel construction. But there is a theme, and it concerns the uncomplicated qualities of courage, and character, and devotion to an ideal, and the fiercely touchy pride of a crew of buccaneers for a ship which should have been sent to the breakers long before she was called upon to fight for her life. And if it reads like a one-man war - well, then, that, precisely, is what it was.' - from frontmatter, 1963 imprint
