The Dragon in the Sea by Frank Herbert
"The Dragon in the Sea" is a science fiction novel set in a war-torn future where the world faces a critical shortage of petroleum. To combat this crisis, the U.S. Navy employs submarines, known as "sub-tugs," to extract crude oil from an undersea well controlled by enemy forces. The story follows Ensign John Ramsey, an electronics officer and psychologist, who is tasked with identifying a spy among the crew of the Fenian Ram, a submarine facing numerous challenges, including incidents that threaten their mission and safety.
As the crew grapples with the psychological and physical dangers of their deep-sea environment, each member exhibits unique traits and vulnerabilities. Captain Sparrow, a competent leader with a religious fervor, creates an atmosphere of control and security, while the other officers, Les Bonnett and José Garcia, display defensiveness toward Ramsey's presence. The tension mounts as Ramsey experiences mental breakdowns under the pressure of the mission, ultimately leading to a revelation about Garcia's identity as the spy.
In a twist of fate, Garcia sacrifices himself to save the crew from disaster, embodying themes of redemption and selflessness. The narrative culminates in a philosophical reflection on the nature of sanity and the impact of war, suggesting that true security lies in transparency and recognition of shared challenges. The novel weaves a tale of inner turmoil, loyalty, and the struggle for survival amidst the depths of conflict.
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The Dragon in the Sea
First published: 1956 (serial form, “Under Pressure,” Astounding Science-Fiction, 1955)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—extrapolatory
Time of work: Early in the twenty-first century
Locale: The sub-tug Fenian Ram
The Plot
As a result of a long-running war, the world is starved for petroleum products. In response, using “sub-tugs,” the United States has been taking crude oil from an undersea well operated by the enemy powers. In similar missions, twenty sister submarines have been lost to enemy action. U.S. Navy experts believe that the Fenian Ram has a good chance for success.
Ensign John Ramsey, an electronics officer and psychologist trained in the Bureau of Psychology, becomes a member of the closely knit crew of the Fenian Ram. His mission is to ferret out the enemy spy among the other three members of the crew to ensure the success of this critical mission.
Nothing about the mission augurs well. A corpse is discovered in the shielded atomic drive room, hidden electronic devices signal the sub’s location, and a silk wiper rag threatens to cause an explosion from static electricity. As the obstacles to success slowly are overcome, Ramsey comes no nearer to determining the identity of the unknown spy, even though he has studied the personalities of the three other crew members intensely, both ashore and on board the ship.
Each of the other crew members has distinct individual qualities as well as potential tragic flaws. Captain Sparrow is extremely competent and has earned the nickname “Savvy” for his superior ability. He is also an apparent religious fanatic, fond of quoting Scripture, yet a man of immense personal emotional control. He is a virtual father to the crew, a commanding presence who can sense or intuit problems before they occur.
Les Bonnett, the first officer, and José Garcia, the engineering officer, react to both the captain and Ramsey, the newcomer, in different ways. Both men, defensive in their protection of the crew and its mission, view Ramsey as an interloper who must prove himself before acceptance. They view the captain as an indispensable, completely sane source of safety and security in the insane undersea world they inhabit during a war, the ultimate insanity.
As the mission proceeds, the ship and crew are threatened by incident after incident of increasing danger and tension. Ramsey, the psychologist, suffers two severe mental breakdowns. The first occurs when he realizes and fully accepts the incredible dangers of this mission, in the coldest depths of the Atlantic, more than nine thousand feet below the surface. He is saved from the second breakdown, which takes the form of catatonic immobility, by the fatherly compassion of Captain Sparrow, who had seemed to Ramsey to embody the latent insanity of the crew and its mission, as well as the insane war and insane mission in which both are engaged. Sparrow maintains that sanity is the ability to swim and survival is sanity. The Bible-quoting Sparrow also provides the ominous citation from Isaiah that gives the book its title: “In that day the Lord with his . . . great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan the crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”
Numerous scenes drenched with both action and tension gradually reveal that Garcia, fearful for the safety of his wife and children, who are under the control of the enemy powers, is the hidden spy. It is Garcia, however, in an act of sacrificial self-immolation, who saves the ship and crew from an atomic flare-up. In effect, he redeems himself by literally laying down his life for his friends.
As the tub returns to its home port through a long undersea tunnel, Ramsey notices that the tunnel resembles the birth canal and that the ship and its crew are returning from “death in water” to “life in water.” Nurtured by the umbilical cord of shared dangers and experience, the ship and the crew emerge from the darkness and dangers of the depths of the sea into the light of life. Ramsey convinces the Bureau of Security that its passion for secrecy and “security” is dangerous, that there can be no security in a world filled with war, hatred, and suspicion. Submarine crews should be publicly decorated and their incredibly dangerous missions honored as a first step toward sanity and truth.
Bibliography
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