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1951 novel by Nicholas Monsarrat

The Cruel Sea is a 1951 novel by Nicholas Monsarrat. It follows the lives of a group of Royal Navy sailors fighting the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War. It contains seven chapters, each describing a year during the war. The novel, based on the author's experience of serving in corvettes and frigates in the North Atlantic in the Second World War, gives a matter of fact but moving portrayal of ordinary men learning to fight and survive in a violent, exhausting battle against the elements and a ruthless enemy.

Nicholas Monsarrat's own career was the model for that of his character Lockhart, a Fleet Street reporter in the 1930s, commissioned as a naval reservist. Monsarrat spent the war in anti submarine escort ships, rising to the rank of lieutenant commander. His first book, Three Corvettes, was published in 1945. After the war, he was a publicity officer at British missions overseas (notably Ottawa) before becoming a full time writer. Over half a century later, the historian Paul Kennedy still considered Monsarrat's fictionalisation of his experiences as the best and most authentic guide to the mentality of the wartime escort commander.

The novel was made into the film The Cruel Sea in 1953, directed by Charles Frend and starring Jack Hawkins as Commander Ericson and Donald Sinden as Lockhart. BBC Light Programme produced a radio dramatisation written by Stephen Grenfell and starred Jack Hawkins which was broadcast on 23 February 1955. BBC Radio 4 has produced two radio adaptations of the book. In September 1980, a two hour dramatised version starred Richard Pasco as Ericson and Michael N. Harbour as Lockhart, and with Terry Molloy as the coxswain of Saltash. Recording took place with the assistance of the captain and ship's company of and the captain of The narrator was Martin Muncaster. In March 2012, another two hour version, starred Gwilym Lee as Lockhart and Jonathan Coy as Ericson. Dramatised by John Fletcher and directed by Marc Beeby, this adaptation went on to win 'Best Use of Sound in an Audio Drama' in the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2013. In 1998 BBC Radio 2 released a three hour full cast dramatisation audiobook as part of the BBC Radio Collection. The novel was adapted by Joe Dunlop. The cast included Donald Sinden (Narrator), Philip Madoc (Ericson), Paul Rhys (Lockhart), Michael Maloney (Ferraby), Helen Baxendale (Julie Hallam), Emma Cunniffe and Jack Davenport. The novel is also available as an audiobook.