The Caine Mutiny is a 1951
Pulitzer Prize–winning novel by
Herman Wouk. The novel grew out of Wouk's personal experiences aboard a
destroyer-minesweeper in the Pacific in
World War II and deals with, among other things, the moral and ethical decisions made at
sea by the captains of ships. The mutiny of the title is legalistic, not violent, and takes place during a historic
typhoon in December 1944. The
court-martial that results provides the dramatic climax to the plot.