Editing Mister Roberts (novel) (section)

==Plot==
Douglas Roberts, the title character, joined the Navy expecting that he would be assigned to  surface combat in a destroyer or a cruiser. He had no idea that the Navy had support ships. To his distress, he was assigned first to a tanker in the Atlantic and then to the USS ''Reluctant'', AK-601, a general cargo freighter ferrying supplies to backwater Pacific bases. Mr. Roberts is the ship's First Lieutenant, meaning that he is responsible for maintaining the entire ship except for the engineering spaces. He hates the ship, but he is more responsible for her than anyone aboard apart from the Captain. The irony is not lost on him.

Every month, he submits a request for transfer; every month, Captain Morton, the commanding officer of the ''Reluctant'', forwards it, not recommending approval. Roberts is the balance wheel between the unreasonable behavior of the Captain and the frustration of the crew at being assigned to "this bucket", which never goes anywhere worth going or does anything worth doing.

The novel is a series of stories set aboard the ''Reluctant'', showing the problems of life aboard a naval auxiliary in the rear areas of the Pacific war. One chapter deals with a very new ensign finding his feet aboard a ship much more casual than a taut [[man-of-war]]. Another shows the kind of feuding that months of boredom can engender between two officers. One chapter shows what can happen when a crew that hasn't had a liberty in more than a year is anchored off an island that has a naval hospital with nurses and no shades on their windows. Yet another recounts what happens when the ''Reluctant'' is sent with a load of cargo to the port of Elysium and Captain Morton grants liberty to half the crew. The final chapter illustrates the affection of the crew towards Mr. Roberts, when his transfer finally comes through and he leaves the ship to return to the United States for assignment to a new destroyer ... and what happens afterwards.