Misunderstandings, madness, and mayhem abound when a sea dog takes on a determined mother in this hilarious novel set amid the Merchant Marine Academy.

Commodore Robert S. Dickey, second in command at the US Merchant Marine Academy, is desperate to become the top brass. But, so far, his attempts to get the lazy, skirt-chasing Admiral Johnson out of his way have all gone awry. When his latest scheme backfires, he finds himself up against a puzzling new hurdle—his one-time partner-in-crime is tired of dealing with WASPs at the academy. He announces he will settle for nothing less than a bona fide Jew at the command position.

While the Merchant Marines are about as WASPy as it gets, Dickey soon discovers there is a Captain Tannenbaume among the ranks. Now he's caught in a battle of wits with the captain's formidable mother, who's determined to make her precious bubbeleh the next one to take the conn. While Dickey works tirelessly to prove the captain is a gentile, Mrs. Tannenbaume must do everything in her power to turn her son and his nineteen-year-old Thai barmaid wife into the perfect Jewish couple.

Outrageous, bawdy, hilarious, and unexpected, this convoluted oddball comedy in the P. G. Wodehouse vein is guaranteed to have even the most land-loving reader rolling with laughter.