I'm currently reading "The Sand Pebbles" by Richard McKenna, telling the tale of Jake Holman a machinists mate on board the USS San Pablo a gunboat in the backwaters of China in the 1920's.
It's a great book and the movie based on the book starring Steve McQueen, Richard Crenna and Candice Bergen is a very good adaptation of the novel.
There's also a great website about the movie
here