With fascinating photographs and text, the author describes the parallel lives of himself and his ship during World War II. Treadwell was a commissioned naval officer, but says his true rating should have been "Landlubber 1/c." At the start of the war, he knew nothing about ships or the sea. He was fully aware he was prone to seasickness. These drawbacks notwithstanding, he longed for sea duty and wanted to be "where the action was." He states, "My only fitness for sea duty was that I was dumb and reckless."

He managed to wangle an assignment as Third Officer on a 110' wooden subchaser, the smallest commissioned warship in the navy. He served aboard this vessel, U.S.S. SC 648, in the South Pacific, for two years, the last nine months as her commanding officer. It was "enough war and sea duty to last a lifetime." he says today. As in his previous book, "Splinter Fleet," the people and the stories are all true.