I concur that the book is indeed a very entertaining read. It describes the ships (which btw were steam powered and had central heating) and the dreadful conditions that the sailors faced in great detail. Dan Simmons is a good storyteller.
It's true. Getting shot at by German submarines and bombed by planes did bring the danger level up to what typical sea travel was like a hundred years earlier:
"Ten men were thrown overboard, around fifty died of scurvy or starvation, and twenty were killed when a drunken brawl got out of hand."
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