Book Description

The Mariner and the Monk tells the story of Captain Leonard La Rue, a brave officer in the Merchant Marine, a Benedictine monk, and the reason tens of thousands of Koreans are alive today and live in freedom.La Rue was born and educated in Philadelphia, PA, and joined the Merchant Marine during the height of the Depression. During World War II, La Rue joined his Merchant Marine colleagues in convoy duty across the Atlantic, including the deadly "Murmansk Run," and he crossed the Atlantic and Pacific multiple times during the war. By war's end he had earned his own command. When the Korean War erupted, La Rue took command of the SS Meredith Victory and led her to Japan and then Korea to participate in the historic landing at Inchon. Two months later, La Rue and his crew made history when the Meredith Victory carried more than 14,000 civilians to freedom from the embattled port of Hungnam. Among his refugee passengers were the parents of the current president of South Korea, Moon Jae-In.La Rue received many awards, but at the height of his career, he left the Merchant Marine and entered a Benedictine monastery far from the sea. For the next four decades he lived a quiet life of prayer and service, never missing the adventures he had lived during twenty years at sea.The Mariner and the Monk details La Rue's life in the context of the ships he sailed and the battles he survived. The reader sails with him through storms, around attacking U-boats and floating mines, and under Luftwaffe bombers. The book explains the reasons for the historic evacuation, and the details that guaranteed the evacuation would be successful for the 200,000 soldiers, Marines and refugees who were safely loaded and transported while the port was surrounded. La Rue's bravery and humanity, and the humble virtue with which he lived his life, led to Brother Marinus La Rue, OSB, being named a "Servant of God," the first step on a path to a declaration of sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church.