The slim grey shape of a destroyer is a thing of beauty as it knifes through the sea and a thing of power and fury with its guns ablaze. But look below the sealed shell and you’ll find a heart and a personality intimately known to the captain on the bridge and to the men who are proud to be called destroyer sailors. One of the finest craftsmen of the theater of our times probed deep in to the heart of a destroyer and gave us the epic 1942 motion picture In Which We Serve. In fact Noel Coward not only wrote it, but also produced, directed and starred in the film.

In Which We Serve is the story of a ship that’s true but the ship is a captain, a chief petty officer, a torpedo man and an ordinary seaman and their wives and mothers and sweethearts and children. His Majesty Ship Torrin is all these and a touch of Dunkirk and the North Sea and the battle of Crete and the story is told in the events that flashed through the minds of the crew as they cling to a life raft in the Mediterranean.