THE CAPTAIN by Jan de Hartog. 434 pages. Atheneum. $5.95.
In Holland's ocean-going tugboat fleet, they tell some beguiling yarns about a young captain, name of Martinus Harinxma. Once, lost in a fog in a minefield, he unerringly determined his ship's position by tasting a sample of sea bottom brought up by the lead; while towing the Shah of Persia's yacht to the Caspian Sea via Russia, he smuggled two girls aboard at Stockholm and kept an orgy going in the Shah's big oval bed during the crossing to Leningrad.
So much for the legends....
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