Calvin Clements Sr's Satan Takes the Helm

Calvin Clements Sr wrote four pulp novels with nautical backgrounds in the 1950s. Some were essentially Far East adventures but Satan Takes the Helm, published in 1954, is very much noir fiction.

Calvin Clements Sr (1915-1997) had been a fireboat pilot before becoming a writer.

Times are tough for seamen. The narrator of the novel, Martin Lewandowski, has his master’s ticket and had held a command but at the moment he’d be willing to settle for just about anything. An old buddy tells him of a possible opportunity but Lewandowski doesn’t think it’s even worth the trouble of following up. He does so anyway. He is surprised that his employer is a woman and he’s even more surprised to get the job. The biggest surprise is that he is not to be Chief Officer of the steamer Eastern Trader but the skipper.

The battered old freighter belongs to Ezra Sloan. Sloan is an old man, too old now for active command. He’ll still be aboard and Lewandowski will theoretically be working for him but in practice Lewandowski will be the captain. There’s yet another surprise. The woman who gave him the job is Sloan’s wife and she’ll be aboard as well.

Ezra Sloan is the most physically ugly man that anyone has ever set eyes on. Joyce Sloan is half a century younger than her husband and makes no secret of the fact that she married him in order to inherit the Eastern Trader. They’ve been married for six years and she had been rather hoping he wouldn’t live quite so long. She and her husband do not share a bed. That does not mean that Joyce has no interest in sex. She’s very interested indeed in sex, and she intends to have Lewandowski as her bed partner.

You can pretty much see where all this is going to lead. It’s a standard noir plot but it’s very well executed.

It helps that Clements has a lively writing style.

Joyce Sloan is a classic femme fatale, scheming and ruthless. There’s no subtlety to the characterisation of Joyce Sloan.

Her husband is more interesting. He’s not the silly old fool that one might have expected him to be. His main weakness is that he’s a decent man who lacks the ruthlessness that is called for in hard times. Tough decisions need to be made. Costs have to be cut. The crew will not be happy about any of this. Lewandowski discovers that his job is to make those tough decisions and make sure they’re accepted by the crew.

Lewandowski is a reasonably complex protagonist. He’s decent enough and more or less honest but he’s not a soft touch and if the crew suffer as a result of decisions he has to make he’s not going to let that worry him. He’s a hard man.

He knows it would be both wrong and stupid to start sharing Joyce Sloan’s bed but he does so anyway. Mainly he’s just worried that rumours will start among the crew that he is sleeping with Ezra Sloan’s wife. This could be a real problem. The crew are devoted to old man Sloan.

Lewandowski is a mixture of good and bad. Which of course makes him a fine noir protagonist.

Clements is able to bring the story to a very satisfying conclusion.

The book’s biggest strength is the shipboard setting which Clements brings vividly to life. You can almost smell the salt spray. I’m a huge fan of mysteries, thrillers and adventure tales with nautical backgrounds and this is a very fine example of nautical noir. The battered old steamer becomes almost a character in this tale.

Satan Takes the Helm is a very solid noir and is highly recommended.

I’ve also reviewed Clements’ excellent Hell Ship to Kuma which is more of an adventure tale but with a few noir tinges.