Garland Roark (1904–1985)

From the book flap:

"The story of Captain Thomas Fenlon's fifty-four years of ship transportation is a saga of the sea, an epic in maritime history.

Tom ran away from an orphanage and at ten worked backbreaking hours for a grocer in New York City. Threatened with a beating because of a mischievous prank, he fled to the Erie Canal. He had always loved ships, so he found jobs on barges and became a steersman. Later he signed onto an oyster boat, not realizing they were engaged in illegal traffic and he became a fullfledged pirate at twelve. Refusing the money due him, he sailed for New York, fell overboard and survived by a miracle. After that his life was one long adventure.

In Rio, Tom's ship was quarantined by yellow fever. One by one his beloved shipmates died, until only three of the crew remained. In the captain's absence he was master of the ship. Ironically, Tom Fenlon's dream of commanding a ship came true through heartbreak and horror. There was more horror on a voyage to China. Becalmed off Africa, he crew was attacked by headhunters. Fenlon lost six more friends in a scurvy epidemic. It seemed that he sailed on jinxed ships, for the next one bound for Singapore was attacked by pirates. Later it was rammed by another vessel and the two ships were locked together for fifty days. During that nightmare voyage cholera broke out!

At twenty, Tom Fenlon won his captain's papers—the youngest man in our Merchant Marine to hold a Master's License in both Sail and Steam. He worked for the Standard Oil Company in a series of tough jobs that no other captain would tackle, but he never lost a ship or a man. To Captain Fenlon the feats he accomplished, the dangers he encountered, the new sea lanes he opened, the thrilling history he wrote was simply a part of a day's work. During his years of active service he had been in every port in the world; he held pilot's licenses for more inland waterways than any other man in America; his navigation firsts were many.

To the men of the marine world who remember him as the little captain who made men instead of breaking them, this pioneer tankerman remains by deed and example the greatest merchant mariner in the history of navigation."… (meer)

Assurément, Garland Roark s'inscrit dans le sillage de Conrad car le thème maritime est juste présent pour faire une galerie de portraits saisissants. Dominé par les figures de Mayrant et Ralls, l'épopée de la sorcière rouge n'est pas un roman qui se donne facilement. Il faut accepter de se plier dans une trame touffue qui ne commence à s'éclaircir que vers la centième page lorsque les flash-back écrits par l'auteur permettent de deviner le sujet du roman.

La Socière rouge décrit ces hommes que n'alourdissent pas les scrupules, qui sont à la limite entre la mafia et le commerçant, sur un fond de vengeance personnelle. Les ressorts psychologiques sont profonds et vissent l'esprit du lecteur sur les tréfonds ténèbreux de l'âme humaine.… (meer)