Captain Henrik K. Carlsen's 13 day struggle against the sea which ended in the sinking of his vessel, The Flying Enterprise, was today termed "one of the great stories of heroism on the sea" by Robert G. Albion, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs.

"This great epic," said Albion, "is in the great tradition of the sea and will undoubtedly crop up time and again whenever men recall the outstanding cases of maritime heroism."

Albion denied that Carlsen stayed aboard merely to prevent the ship from becoming a "derelict" whose cargo can be claimed by either the salvager or anyone who cares to board it. If the shipping line had announced its intention to salvage the Flying Enterprise, he asserted, the ship would not have become a "derelict."

"Spectacular"

Harris J. Isbrantsen, the ship's owner, made no such statement and probably told Carlsen that he should stick by the ship, Albion said. He termed this an example of the shipper's "flair for the spectacular."

The last Isbrantsen Line ship in the news was the Flying Cloud, which attempted to break through a Chinese Nationalist blockade to reach Communist ports and was fired on and badly damaged by Nationalist shore batteries in 1950.

Although the tradition of being last off the ship is an old one in the history of seafaring, Albion termed Carlsen's action as far "over and beyond the normal line of duty."