The Coffin Ship

``Coffin ship'' is a 19th-century term for a ship intended to sink so that its owner can collect insurance. When the officers of the contemporary supertanker Prometheus die in an apparent accident, Richard Mariner does not hesitate when hired to replace them from the crew-finding agency he runs--even taking command himself. But from his first hours on board, Mariner is caught in a web of plots involving the tanker, its crew, the quarter-million tons of oil it carries, a beautiful woman and the inclement sea. While the complex story line commands full interest, this first novel is further strengthened by its description of supertanker operations that are routine only in their dangers. Modern maritime technology, rather than eliminating the need for traditional seamanship, has added new demands in an environment that remains as unforgiving of error as it did when primitive man first pushed a hollowed log into the surf. (Sept.)