| ID | Description | Categories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2642 | Convoy XK234 Arrives: The Flying Angels at War. 56p., illus. London: Missions to Seamen, 1946.
A propaganda pamphlet on the work of a group of dedicated people. The Missions were available with tea, support, and sympathy wherever merchant seamen landed. |
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| 2643 | Roll of Honour of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets, 1939–1945. 3 vols. London: Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, 1956.
A large and poignant reminder of the cost of the war. Volumes 1 and 2 record the names on the Tower Hill Memorial, with age, panel reference number, and some biographical details. Volume 3 covers other memorials from Halifax to Hong Kong along with individual graves. |
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| 2644 | ALLEN, R. S. Wartime with Shell: The Autobiography of Captain R.S. (Bob) Allen. 144p., illus. North Shields: Shield Publications, 1996. ISBN: 1871128137.
Allen had a busy war, notably in the Mediterranean and for 18 months on MAC ships. |
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| 2645 | ARMSTRONG, Warren. Battle of the Oceans. 183p., illus. London: Jarrolds; New York: Liveright, 1943.
A chronological and histrionic account of the war at sea, full of Hun pirates facing modest British tars. This is followed by a series of vignettes in the same vein. A shortened edition of the book was published by Allen & Unwin in 1964. |
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| 2646 | ARMSTRONG, Warren. Freedom of the Seas. 160p., illus., index. London: Jarrolds, 1943.
A potted history of the freedom of the seas, followed by a polemic on the war at sea and the condition of merchant seamen. |
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| 2647 | ARMSTRONG, Warren. Saltwater Tramp. 148p., illus. London: Jarrolds, 1944.
An autobiography, including some account of the author's wartime experiences. It is, however, principally a vehicle to allow him to return to the theme of earlier books, the future of the Merchant Navy. |
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| 2648 | ARMSTRONG, Warren. The Red Duster at War. 192p. London: Gollancz, 1942.
A polemic on the conditions of seamen and the state of the merchant Navy pre-war, despite which seamen have risen to the occasion and deserve better treatment post-war, in recognition of this. |
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| 2649 | ARNOTT, Robert H., & SMITH, Ronald L. Captain of the Queen. ii, 332p., illus. Sevenoaks: New English Library, 1982. ISBN: 0450048918. The autobiography of a captain of the Queen Elizabeth II. He joined the Merchant Navy in 1940 and the first sixty pages describe his exuberant but relatively trouble-free wartime career as a midshipman and junior officer with the Blue Funnel Line. |
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| 2650 | ATKINSON, Neill. Hell or High Water: New Zealand Merchant Seafarers Remember the War. 272p., bibliog., illus., index. Auckland: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN: 1869505190.
Opens up an un-regarded topic. Thousands of New Zealanders served in the Merchant Navy and a series of recollections bear testimony to their experiences. |
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| 2651 | BATTEN, John. Call the Watch (Merchant Navy Stories). 118p., illus. London: Hutchinson, [1944].
A series of vignettes describing life in the wartime Merchant Navy. |
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| 2652 | BECKMAN, Morris. Atlantic Roulette. A Merchantman at War, June 1940: Running the Gauntlet of U-Boat Alley, E-Boat Alley and the Luftwaffe. 138p. Brighton: Donovan, 1996. ISBN: 1871085322.
A detailed and well-drawn account of one round trip to Aruba on a tramp tanker in 1940. The author was a radio officer on the s.s. Venetia. The feeling for atmosphere is as good as the feeling for facts is shaky. What appears to be a second edition was published in 2011 by The History Press as Flying the Red Duster: a Merchant Seaman's First Voyage into the Battle of the Atlantic 1940. ISBN: 0752459007. |
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| 2653 | BEHRENS, C. B. A. Merchant Shipping and the Demands of War (History of the Second World War. UK Civil Series). xix, 494p., illus., index. London: HMSO, 1955.
A basic official source. Also covers the work of troopships. |
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| 2654 | BRADFORD, Henry T. Dockers' Stories from the Second World War. 127p., illus. Stroud: History Press, 2011. ISBN: 0752456881.
Lively stories and colourful characters reveal the bravery of ordinary men at war, from Captain Jim Fryer's ship towage work on Calais roads and Dunkirk beaches, and saving lives of survivors from the bombed hospital ship Paris, to PO Jack Hicks' quieter but equally memorable posting steering a clinker-built boat on a hush-hush job from the Thames to the north-east, his crew consisting only of an inexperienced co-man and an incredibly efficient WREN. |
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| 2655 | BURN, Alan. The Fighting Commodores: The Convoy Commanders in the Second World War. [viii], 262p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Cooper, 1999. ISBN: 0850525047.
A fairly routine meander through the role of the commodores and a retelling of their role in some of the more spectacular convoys. |
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| 2656 | CALDWELL, Walter. Kiwi in a Crow's Nest. 139p., illus. Palmerston North: Dunmore, 1978. ISBN: 0908564171.
Little of the war, but lots of atmospheric tale tales of a young New Zealander in the Merchant Navy |
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| 2657 | CAMPBELL, A.B. Sailing To-night – with the Merchant Navy. 25p., illus. London: Tuck, [1940].
A well illustrated propaganda booklet describing the dangers faced by the convoys sustaining Britain with food and munitions. |
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| 2658 | CAMPBELL, A. B. Salute the Red Duster. 208p., illus. London: Johnston, 1952.
A tribute to the Merchant Navy at war. |
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| 2659 | CARRADICE, Phil & BREVERTON, Terry. Welsh Sailors of the Second World War. x, 438p., illus. Cowbridge: Glendŵr Publishing, 2007. ISBN: 1903529190.
A miscellany of information built around the oral reminiscences averaging three to four pages from predominantly merchant sailors. |
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| 2660 | CHANDLER, George. Liverpool Shipping. 256p., illus., index. London: Phoenix House, 1960.
Contains short histories of the shipping lines which did or do sail from Liverpool. There are many references to the fate of merchantmen in WWII and to the port itself. |
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| 2661 | CHOUDHURY, Yousuf. Sons of the Empire: Oral History from the Bangladeshi Seamen Who Served on British Ships during the 1939–45 War. xiv, 130p., bibliog., illus., index. Birmingham: Sylheti Social History Group, 1995. ISBN: 0952133911.
The role of lascar seamen is rarely mentioned. These brief three- or four-page autobiographies tell of courage and suffering, heavy losses and an indifferent and prejudiced post-war world. |
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