Wrack. By Maurice Drake. (Duckworth and Co. 6s.)—The hero of
this book, Philip Stennis, is a naval engineer, who, as the result of an accident which lays him up for some time, makes acquaintance with a certain Sir Charles Steed, the head of the Steed Salvage Association. When he recovers his health Philip finds that salvage work pays better than remaining in the Navy, and he embraces this career, which, as may be supposed, proves most adventurous. The descriptions of life on board the Electra,' the salvage ship, are extremely vivid. One of Philip's shipmates visits every Continental picture-gallery he can get to, and boasts: "There ain't a gallery from Bilbao to Stockholm within three 'narked miles of a seaport what I 'aven't seen." Nicolai, the "foreman," is an authority on• cromlechs and dolmens, with the study of which he solaces the intervals of an almost too adventurous life. The account of Philip's fruitless efforts to salvage the Masai' is written with a good deal of power. The end of the book, however, is both unpleasant and unsatisfactory. The only thing which can be said in its favour is that the outrageous conduct of Philip and Olwen Vaughan ruins Philip's career, and therefore may serve as a useful warning to people inclined to imitate them. After chap. 15 the story loses its earlier characteristics and becomes disagreeable and rather tedious.
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