The Last Ship

infobox Book |
name = The Last Ship
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image_caption = Cover of first edition (hardcover)
author = William Brinkley
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country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Viking Press
release_date = March 1988
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 624 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-670-80981-0 (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-345-35982-8 (paperback edition)
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"The Last Ship" is a post-apocalyptic novel written by William Brinkley. It is the story of an American guided missile destroyer, the USS "Nathan James", on patrol in the Barents Sea during a brief, full-scale nuclear war among superpowers, and its ensuing search for a habitable region for its mixed male and female crew.

Plot summary

The story is told in first-person by the ship's Commanding Officer (C.O.), whose full name is never revealed, although we do eventually find that his first name is Thomas. The Captain is writing this history several months after the war in order to describe "Nathan James"'s odyssey during the conflict's aftermath.

The captain begins by describing the ship, which is nuclear powered and armed with nuclear cruise missiles. He discusses the ethics of command, both of a warship and of nuclear strike forces; life aboard a U.S. Navy Ship in the Arctic Circle; and the nature of his vessel's mission. He then recounts how, without warning, he one day received orders to carry out a nuclear strike on the Russian city of Orel and its nearby ICBM silos. He then explains that after carrying out the mission and reporting the fact to his superiors, a reply from the U.S. Navy became hopelessly garbled halfway through the message. With one exception later in the book, this was the last official communication from the United States Navy that "Nathan James" ever received.

The Captain then decides to head southward into the North Sea, and thence to England, in order to re-establish contact with friendly forces. Upon steaming up the Thames to London, the ship encounters dense clouds of radioactive smoke, through which can be seen the ruins of London. The Captain then reverses course and heads for the open sea in order to escape the radiation. In the following months, the ship's crew discovers that the radioactive cloud hovers around all land masses that "Nathan James" approaches, rendering them uninhabitable.

The ship soon encounters a Russian ballistic missile submarine, the "Pushkin", off a now-destroyed Gibraltar, and by common agreement the two ships rapidly establish a truce; thereafter the two Commanding Officers agree to a joint operation. "Pushkin", fully fueled but low on food, will attempt to reach a secret Soviet supply base in the Arctic and retrieve supplies and nuclear fuel for "Nathan James", while the U.S. Navy Destroyer, relatively well-stocked with food but low on nuclear fuel, will make its way to the Pacific Ocean in search of habitable land for the two crews. The ships then part ways.

As the "USS Nathan James" steams through the Mediterranean Sea, it encounters lifeless derelicts, inhospitable lands, and ill, broken survivors who have made their way to the coasts, though the ship lacks the resources to offer any aid to the stricken civilians. At one point, weeks after the war, the ship does receive a message from the United States National Command Authority ordering all recipients to reply. The "USS Nathan James" does so, but the mysterious message simply repeats again and again, leading the Captain to believe it is an automated transmission. Based on his knowledge of Russian targeting of North America as well as what he has seen of Europe, he, along with most of the Ship's Officers, concludes that the United States has simply ceased to exist and that what remains of North America is uninhabitable. He thus resolves to proceed to the Pacific Ocean by way of the Suez.

At this point however, the Ship's Combat Systems Officer challenges the Captain's authority. Believing that parts of North America may be habitable, he demands that the ship return to the east coast so that they can see for themselves. He further charges that the Captain is no longer in lawful command, since the U.S. Navy and the United States, by whose authority he commands the "USS Nathan James", themselves no longer exist. The Combat Systems Officer thus demands a vote on the correct course of action. The Captain, angered at this mutiny, allows a vote, believing that the Combat Systems Officer has little support, and he is shocked when nearly a third of the crew side with the Combat Systems Officer. In the end, this minority demands rafts and the Captain's gig in order to sail across thousands of miles of open ocean to the United States. With a mixture of sadness and outrage, the Captain agrees, and as the mutineers depart, the "USS Nathan James" steams through Suez.

In the following weeks, the ship travels through the East Indies, during which she experiences nuclear winter, including sub-freezing temperatures, black snow at the equator and exposure to high levels of radiation. Afterwards, the "USS Nathan James" reaches the remote South Pacific and, with her fuel levels down to just a few thousand miles of steaming, discovers a small, uncontaminated island.

The Ship's crew then establishes a community on the island, and the captain and his officers begin to wrestle with the issue of how to go about the business of beginning families. Ultimately the women establish an arrangement, to which the men accede, which consists of a type of polyandry together with a prohibition on monogamy. But while ultimately most of the men mate with most of the women, no pregnancies occur, and the crew begins to worry that the radiation of the nuclear winter may have rendered everyone sterile.

Some time later, the "Pushkin", which had lost contact with the "USS Nathan James" months earlier, arrives, its crew on the verge of starvation, but bearing an abundance of nuclear fuel. Now, at last, the "USS Nathan James" is free to explore as much of the world its crew wishes, keeping the island as its home base, without needing to economize on fuel. But at the very moment when the Captain is preparing the ship for such a voyage, a new disaster strikes; a group of sailors led by the Captain's senior officer, abhorring the remaining nuclear missiles aboard the ship, launches them without his permission. But one of the missiles accidentally detonates while in flight, triggering a chain reaction among all of the missiles, destroying the "USS Nathan James" and contaminating the island. The Captain, his remaining crew, and the Russian crew immediately embark aboard the "Pushkin" to escape, beginning a new search for another sanctuary, eventually reaching the United States research facility McMurdo Station, in Antarctica, which contains years' worth of food and supplies.

By this time, "Pushkin"'s ballistic missiles have been jettisoned, and the resulting space rebuilt into expanded crew quarters, recreational area, and a nursery. The introduction of the Russian crew (who were much less affected by radioactive fallout due to the superior protection offered by the submarine) into the predesigned breeding program has resulted in at least three pregnancies by the novel's end. "Pushkin" has the fuel to conduct long, thorough explorations of the world. Thus it is the Russian submarine, and not the "USS Nathan James" that is the Last Ship; but the novel ends on a hopeful note, as the well-provisioned survivors, now prepare to rediscover the world.