Justin Scott. The Shipkiller. New York: Pegasus, 2012. Print.

As much as we might hate to admit it, there is nothing like a good revenge story—The Sons of Katie Elder, Seven Samurai, Hamlet. The Shipkiller is like that.

Doctors Peter and Carolyn Hardin are minding their own business, sailing off the coast of France when their forty-foot sailboat is crushed by a supertanker that apparently did not even notice their craft. The ULCC (Ultra-Large Crude Carrier) is 1800 feet long and 300 feet wide. 1800 feet is over a third of a land mile. Carolyn is killed, but Peter survives and washes ashore on the Cornwall coast of England.

Peter mourns but is stonewalled at every turn trying to get justice. He attempts to take justice into his own hands. Without going into too much detail, let us just say that he sails halfway around the world—part of the way with a lovely Nigerian doctor—with an illegally obtained weapon and with the apparent assistance of an operative of a spy agency of country in a different part of the world.

This is an entertaining story as the American Hardin encounters one obstacle after another to try to achieve his goal. As a former Coast Guardsman, I can vouch for Scott’s accuracy. He knows tankers and sailboats. It made me want to go to sea.

In the seventies I read a book detailing the difficulties the French and British governments had in getting legal redress after the destruction caused by the Torrey Canyon oil spill. Even powerful governments can only do so much to attach liability for the shipping industry.

Originally published in 1978 when Iran was still a kingdom, The Shipkiller has held up well. From the perspective of seamanship, both “rag boats” and “stink pots,” it is a technical treat. It is a precursor to the type of novel Tom Clancy would write. It could make a good film if done right.

There is one plot twist that might be a little unbelievable. But Shakespeare did virtually the same thing with Hamlet and Tolkien with The Lord of the Rings. As Coleridge would say, I am willing to suspend my disbelief a little for a good story.