| Entry Text: | ERIKSEN, Ronnie. The Sea Was Kind to Me: The Memoirs of a Wartime Sailor. xv, 112p. illus., index. Knysna: Amorique, 1990. ISBN: 0620150556.
An autobiography. He joined up as an Able Seaman in the Seaward Defence Force in mid-1940, working on the converted minesweepers protecting the Cape. After seventeen months of fruitless patrols he took a commission after training at "Copey's Castle". As the South African Forces expanded he rose rapidly through the ranks of the local minesweeping and escort forces. In mid-1943 he commissioned HDML 1202 used for anchorage patrol off Durban. He soon moved back to escort vessels, by 1944 with his own command of a converted whalecatcher, where he stayed until wars end. A fairly factual account of his war is enlivened with anecdotes and interwoven with a full history of submarine warfare in South African waters. |
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