During his 14 months aboard the Virgo, Heggen wrote a collection of vignettes about daily life on the ship, which he described as sailing "from Tedium to Apathy and back again, with an occasional side trip to Monotony".
Like his fictional alter ego Doug Roberts, he felt "left out" of the War and butted heads with his commander, a coarse martinet who repeatedly denied his requests for transfer to a destroyer.
The fictional "Captain Morton" of the movie and dramatizations was Naval Reserve Lieutenant Commander Herbert Ezra Randall, a Merchant Marine officer.
Like his fictional “Old Stupid” counterpart, Captain Randall did own two palm trees, and like the characters Doug Roberts and Ensign Pulver, Heggen threw them over the side.
Despite mixed reviews, it sold over one million copies and made Heggen the toast of the New York literary scene, followed by a lucrative offer to adapt the book for the Broadway stage.
The Chief Medical Examiner reported on June 8, 1949 that Heggen died by drowning though chemical analysis had revealed a "considerable amount of barbiturates".