Brown on Resolution

:"For the first film of the novel, see Brown on Resolution (film). For the second film, see Sailor of the King.""Brown on Resolution" is a nautical novel written by CS Forester. It is set during World War I. The hero of the novel, seaman Brown, is the sole survivor of a sunken British warship, picked up by one of the German warships of the German Asiatic Squadron after the German victory at the Battle of Coronel.

Historical background

As so often with Forester's novels, the action takes place against a background of carefully researched historical fact. During the early part of the Great War, Germany had a small squadron of modern vessels in the Far East. When war was declared, SMS "Emden" was detached to serve as a commerce raider. The larger vessels of the squadron set out to return to Europe. The German squadron encountered an inferior British squadron off the coast of Chile, and defeated it at the Battle of Coronel. The German fleet then rounded Cape Horn and encountered a superior British squadron, which defeated it at the Battle of the Falkland Islands. All the German ships were sunk in this battle, with the exception of the SMS "Dresden", which escaped back in to the Pacific Ocean.

Plot

In the novel the German vessel (the fictitious SMS "Ziethen") where Brown was held prisoner suffers damage in the second battle. Her captain plans to pull into an isolated Pacific anchorage to try to repair his vessel. In the novel, he chooses (fictitious) Resolution Island, in the Galápagos.

The resourceful Brown escapes, steals a rifle and a small amount of ammunition, and makes his way ashore.

Her captain having already careened his vessel, the vessel's main battery could not be brought to bear on Brown, and he was able to pick off exposed crew-members who are trying to repair her punctured hull plates. In Forester's description Resolution is an impenetrable tangle of scrub and thorn bushes, making it difficult for shore parties to run our hero to ground.

Brown is eventually killed by a German shot. He never learns that his actions delayed the repairs long enough to ensure that the German vessel fails to escape her British pursuers. Ironically, Brown is the illegitimate son of a senior British naval officer who benefits from his action, although they do not know of each other.

Parallels in Forester's work

This novel has some parallels to Forester's "Death to the French". In both novels the hero is an enlisted man, cut off, and acting alone. In both novels the enlisted man's dogged and surprisingly effective actions are attributed to a kind of instinctive shrewdness rather than to conscious planning.

Film versions

The novel had been filmed twice. John Mills played the title role in the 1935 version, called "Brown on Resolution". The 1953 version was called "Single-handed" in the US and "Sailor of the King" in the UK.