United Fruit Company's banana boat the S.S. Ulua, renamed the U.S.S. Octans, was one such ship.Author Kenneth G. Oliver, who served as a petty officer aboard the Octans, uses the ship's deck log and muster rolls, records from the National Archives and the U.S. Navy, remembrances of fellow crew members, and his own memory to chronicle the ship's service as a part of the Seventh Fleet that carried supplies to General Douglas MacArthur and his troops as they leap-frogged through the Pacific from their base in Australia to the Philippines. Enemy air attacks, loss of cargo, fresh water contamination and mechanical breakdowns were a few of the trials the ship and crew encountered during their time of service with the U.S. Navy.

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