Enjoyed this very much. An interesting 'inside' look at the running of a naval ship in the north Pacific after Pearl Harbor during a routine patrol that becomes much more, and taxes the crew of the Atlantis. Of course the crew is made up of mere human beings, none of which really would ever choose to be there, yet find themselves in varying degrees of competence, bravery, and humanity as their voyage takes a serious turn for the worse. Lots of details about all of the links in the complicated chain of both the running of the giant machine that a warship is, as well as the hierarchical structure of officers in the Navy., all making it seem very real. Our main hero is a truly good guy that is governed by his humanity and that of others, including self-proclaimed enemies, and Dibner does a great job at making us cheer him on from start to finish. I was very privileged to actually know the author, Martin Dibner in the 1990's when he was writing a history of the small town of Maine where i live, and i wished i knew then that he had written books of fiction, including Deep Six, because i would have loved to discuss it with him. Sadly, he was long before i found out he was a fiction writer. I plan to read them all....especially after finishing this one! ( )