Category: Shipwrecks & Sinkings

BURKETT, Molly. Once Upon A Wartime VI. 96p., illus. Grantham: Barny Books, 1998. ISBN: 0948204699.

Wartime recollections. Pat Kingsmill was a FAA pilot and describes being shot down during the Channel Dash. Another chapter describes the experience of a merchant seaman sunk in convoy HX229.

EDGES, George. Diary of 35 Days Spent in a Lifeboat with Fourteen Men on the Atlantic after Torpedoing, August 10th to September 13th 1942. 16p. [n.p.: author, 1942].

A privately printed copy of the original log kept in the lifeboat by the Chief Officer of the Blue Funnel motor ship Medon. She was sunk in August 1942 in the South Atlantic by an Italian submarine while sailing independently.

PARRY, Joyce Ffoulkes. Joyce’s War: The Second World War Journal of a Queen Alexandra Nurse, edited by Rhiannon Evans. 256p., illus., index. Stroud: History Press, 2015. ISBN: 9780750962308.

Parry spent much of the war on the hospital ships  Otranto and Karapara as well as time on shore in hospitals in Alexandria and Calcutta. This edited diary is full of details of life ashore and afloat, worries about family and friends and social life. A fascinating volume.

OSBORNE, Richard. The Watery Grave: The Life and Death of HMS Manchester. xx, 244p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Frontline, 2015. ISBN: 1473845858.

This account of her building and career focuses on what was to be the longest court martial in Royal Navy history. Torpedoed for the second time in a year during the Pedestal convoy, her captain chose to scuttle her off the Tunisian coast.

YOUNG, Ron. The Comprehensive Guide to the Shipwrecks of the North East Coast. Volume Two (1918-2000). 256p., illus., index. Stroud: Tempus, 2001. ISBN: 0752417509.

Organised geographically from Whitby to Berwick this lists some 204 wrecks for which remains still exist on the seabed. It gives details of the ships, the sinkings and the wreck site.

LOANE, Bill. The Koolama Incident. viii, 165p., bibliog., illus. East Perth, WA: CDC Graphics, 1992. ISBN: 0646081004.

In February 1942 the Koolama was bombed by Japanese floatplanes and beached off the Australian coast of the Kimberley Plateau. Guided by Aborigines, ninety-three men walked 160 kilometres back to civilisation. A tale of gruelling courage. Reprinted by Rosenberg in 2004 (ISBN: 187705819X).

EDGE, Spence, & HENDERSON, Jim. No Honour, No Glory. 192p., illus. Auckland: Collins, 1983. ISBN: 0002172089.  

The little-known tragedies of the Italian merchantmen Jason, sunk by Porpoise in December 1941, and the Nino Bixio, sunk by Turbulent, both off Greece and with the loss of hundreds of British and Dominion POWs. Edge was one of the New Zealand survivors.

MALCOLM, Ian M. Shipping Company Losses of the Second World War. 272p., bibliog., illus., index. Stroud: History Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780752493428.

An excellent reference work covering the British Merchant Navy. Gives shipping losses from all causes arranged by shipping company and then alphabetically by ship name. Has a paragraph on cause of loss and fate of the crew.

MACDONALD, Rod. Force Z Shipwrecks of the South China Sea: HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse. xx, 156p., bibliog., illus. Dunbeath: Whittles, 2013. ISBN: 9781849950954.

Competent condensed descriptions of the ships and the fall of Singapore followed by a section on the state of the wrecks.

LYNE, Allen. Lost: The Stories of All Ships Lost by the Royal Australian Navy. 305p., illus., index. Adelaide: author, 2013. ISBN: 9800646903750.

A chronological guide to the forty-five ships lost by the RAN, most of them in WW2. Some of the descriptions are controversial.

HARDY, Clare. SS Ceramic: The Untold Story: Includes the rescue of sole survivor Eric Munday. 572p., bibliog., illus., index. [n.p.], 2006. ISBN: 1904908640.

Detached from ON149 in December 1942, the ss Ceramic was torpedoed and sunk west of the Azores by U-515. 20-year old Eric Munday, a Sapper in the Royal Engineers, was the only survivor of 656 passengers and crew. One of the casualties was the author's grandfather. Munday tells his story in full, and the surviving crew of U-515 give their own accounts of the sinking, ranked the 23rd worst wartime shipping disaster of any nation or period.

CARROLL, Francis M. Athenia Torpedoed. 232p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2013; Annapolis, NIP, 2012. ISBN: 9781781591710.

An up to date retelling which focuses on the survivors and their tales.

MURRAY, Allan A. Get the Oars Out: When I-24 Sank the Iron Chieftain (Men and Ships at War, Book 2). vi, 68p., bibliog., illus. [n.p., Family Murray Trust, 2016. ISBN: 9781519027405.

        A description of the sinking of the ss Iron Chieftain by the Japanese submarine I-24 on 3 June 1942. Iron Chieftain was the first merchant vessel sunk off the south-east coast of Australia by submarines in World War II; twelve merchant seamen lost their lives. Thirty-seven survived, including twenty-five who spent more than a day rowing to shore in a lifeboat. Third Cook George Anderson, Allan Murray's maternal grandfather, was in the lifeboat.

Volume One covers England's East Coast from Northumberland to Kent; Volume 2 the South Coast from Sussex to the Isles of Scilly and Volume 3, Wales and the West. Each sinking is fully described and gives details of the state of the wreck. Although most are German and from the First World War, there is much interesting material on the Second World War and British boats lost in those waters are included.

A meticulously researched and detailed guide to the 285 wrecks off this coast.

West was on Britannia when sunk by the raider Thor on 25 March 1941 in mid-Atlantic. He was one of 38 survivors who reached Brazil after a 26-day voyage.

Some 230 of the passengers and crew survived the sinking of the s.s. City of Cairo only to face dramatic boat journeys.

When the Avila Star was sunk in 1941 while travelling unescorted in the South Atlantic, the survivors endured great privation.

A listing by company of the 1400 merchantmen lost to submarine attack. Details of the attack and crew and cargo losses are given. An excellent reference work.

The real story of the grounding of the s.s. Politician, immortalised in the novel of Compton Mackenzie and an Ealing Comedy film.

Retells the amazing journey of Tapscott and Widdicombe over 2,500 miles in an open boat after the sinking of the s.s. Anglo-Saxon by the raider Widder. The last third of the book describes the recovery of the boat in the 1990s and its eventual transfer to the Imperial War Museum from the Mystic Seaport Museum.

The largest single shipping loss of the war. Her sinking by FW Condor and U 32 is painfully and painstakingly reconstructed.

A full account of a small wartime tragedy when the Fanad Head, in convoy HX235 ran down the Canadian fishing schooner Flora Alberta with the loss of 21 lives on the schooner.

A journalist's vivid account of the City of Benares sinking.

MATSON, Dennis. The Lancastria: Looking Back. A Survivor’s Story. [vi], 34p., illus. [n.p., 2019]. ISBN: 9781793136398.

He was a Private in the R.A.S.C. and this describes his experience of the sinking and later wartime career.

AUSTRALIA. Parliament. Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. (Defence Subcommittee) Reference: Circumstances of the Sinking of HMAS Sydney. Official Hansard Report. [4], [pp.317-398]. Canberra: The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1998.

A transcript of the evidence given to the committee by ten experts and relatives of the deceased on Friday 1st May 1998.

DOE, Helen. One Crew: The RNLI’s Official 200-Year History. 288p., bibliog., illus., index. Stroud: Amberley, 2024. ISBN: 9781398122352.

An excellent history of a magnificent organisation with appropriate information from WW2.

ROBINSON, George W. A Slice of Life at Sea. [6],111p., illus. Broughty Ferry: Moira Brown, 2017. ISBN: 9781521471654.

He joined the Merchant Navy in 1924 and this autobiography covers his early years at sea up to 1931. There is then a final section on his survival in the North Atlantic when the s.s. Carlton was sunk in the North Atlantic by an Italian submarine in the North Atlantic in 1941.

SCHOFIELD, B. B., & MARTYN, L. F. The Rescue Ships and the Convoys: Saving Lives During the Second World War [edited and expanded by Victoria Schofield]. 208p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2024. ISBN: 1036102661.

An expanded edition of the title first published in 1968. Describes the careers of some 29 ships specially converted to accompany convoys and to rescue the crews of torpedoed merchantmen.

HOOD, Susan. Lifeboat 12: Based on a True Story.  New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2018. ISBN: 9781481468848.

A fictional poetry account of the ss City of Benares tragedy for young readers.

HEILIGMAN, Deborah. Torpedoed: The True Story of the World War II Sinking of "The Children's Ship". xi,292p., illus. New York: Godwin Books, 2019. ISBN: 9781627795548.

A well-researched and well written account aimed at 10-14 year-olds.

MANN, A.J., One Jump Ahead: Escape on the Vyner Brooke. 18p., 150p., [n.p.], 2020. ISBN: 9788619517712.

Mann was Second Mate on the s.s. Vyner Brooke. This is his personal account of his escape from Singapore, the loss of his ship, and his subsequent flight through the Dutch East Indies.

JOURDAN, David W. Operation Rising Sun: The Sinking of Japan’s Secret Submarine I-52. xviii, 288p., bibliog., illus., index. Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2020. ISBN: 9781640121690.

An account of the journey of the submarine on a Yanagi mission carrying goods – including gold - and technicians from Japan to Germany in mid-1944. She was sunk in the Atlantic by a US Task Force. The second half of the book describes the discovery of the wreck by salvors in the mid-1990s. But the gold remains unrecovered.

MEARNS, David L. The Search for the Sydney. [viii], 264p., bibliog., illus., index. Sydney, NSW: HarperCollins, 2009. ISBN: 9780732288891.

A profusely illustrated coffee table style book which offers an excellent account of how the wreck of the Sydney was finally discovered and the mystery of her sinking solved after almost seventy years.

URQUHART, Alistair. The Forgotten Highlander: My Incredible Story of Survival During the War in the Far East. [v], 312p., illus., index. London: Little, Brown, 2010. ISBN: 9781408702116.

A somewhat bitter autobiography. He joined the Gordon Highlanders and went to Singapore on the troopship ss Andes. Captured at the fall of Singapore he worked as a POW on the Burma railroad then was shipped to Japan on one of the “Hellships” in late 1944. The Kachidoki Maru was sunk by an American submarine and he was only rescued after several days on a raft. He was then sent to Nagasaki where he saw out the war. As with many others he was denied financial support post-war because he could not produce documentation about his imprisonment!

CRABB, Brian James. The Forgotten Tragedy: The Story of the Sinking of HMT Lancastria. Xii, 281pp, bibliog., illus., index. Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2002. ISBN: 1900289504.

A well researched and authoritative account of the tragic sinking.

Izzi was one of the US Armed Guard section on the Dutch liner Zaandam sunk by U 174 in the South Atlantic on 2 November 1942. It took almost three months before he was rescued by a US patrol craft, after suffering great privations.

CLARK, Anthony. Uncle George and RMS Lancastria. 46p., illus. [n.p., author,2020]. ISBN: 9781542973434.

George Clark was a member of the Pioneer Corps who died on Lancastria. This rather bitter memoir records a nephews attempt to reconstruct what happened to an uncle he never met some seventy years after the event.

HEALISS, Ronald. Arctic Rescue: A Memoir of the Tragic Sinking of HMS Glorious. 147p. Leeds: Sapere, 2020. ISBN: 9781800550070.

A reprint of the 1955 work Adventure Glorious in which one of the survivors, a marine, tells the story of the carrier Glorious’ part in the Norwegian Campaign, of her sinking, and his survival. The reprint adds a two page biography of the author.

WYNN, Stephen. The Lancastria Tragedy, Sinking and Cover-Up: June 1940. 184p., bibliog,, illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2020. ISBN: 9781526706638.

A concise account of the tragedy, based on survivors memories and with a brie3f history of the ship and some background on the post-Dunkirk evacuations from France.

MILLAR, Andy. Lost At Sea: Found at Fukushima. viii, 251p., bibliog., illus. Newport, NSW: Big Sky, 2012. ISBN: 9781921941528.

The story of survivors of sinkings of merchantmen by the raider Thor and of their subsequent imprisonment in Japanese camps. Reprinted in 2017 by Pen & Sword Military (ISBN: 9781473878068).

KONSTAM, Angus. Sink the Tirpitz 1942–44: The RAF and Fleet Air Arm Duel with Germany's Mighty Battleship (Air Campaign, 7). 96p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Osprey, 2018. ISBN: 9781472831590.

A succinct account of the various raids.

LEWIS, Tom. Honour Denied: Teddy Sheean, A Tasmanian Hero.and other Brave Warriors of the Royal Australian Navy. 317p., bibliog., illus., index. Kent Town, S.A.: Avonmore, 2016. ISBN: 9780987151971.

No member of the Royal Australian Navy has ever been awarded a Victoria Cross. Of the 100 so far given to Australians, 96 are to the Army and four to the Royal Australian Air Force. This detailed and passionate account of Sheean’s bravery during the sinking of HMAS Armidale aims to prove the lack of VCs for the RAN is unjust.

PARR, Claude. A Seemingly Ordinary Man. 160p. Cardiff: Candy Jar Books, 2016. ISBN: 9780993519253.

An autobiography. Aged seventeen he joined the Merchant Navy in 1939. He was sunk on Laconia in September 1942 but survived and was captured and imprisoned by the Vichy French. A good account of a far from ordinary life.

MALCOLM, Ian M. Dangerous Seas 1939-1945. v, 227p., bibliog., illus. Broughty Ferry: Moira Brown, 2017. ISBN: 9781520753775.

A compilation of four short Kindle Books. These are Dangerous Voyaging and Dangerous Voyaging 2, both based on brief accounts of individual convoys, often with a personal story. Fortunes of War briefly lists the war service of merchant ships chronicled in Vol. 14 of the Marine Observer for 1937, plus descriptions of three wartime voyages made by a friend, Douglas Cameron. The final volume, Mined Coasts, is a list of British merchant ships damaged or sunk by mines, with brief details of the circumstances.

WISE, James E. & BARON, Scott. Soldiers Lost at Sea: A Chronicle of Troopship Disasters. xii, 282p., bibliog., illus., index. Annapolis: N.I.P., 2004. ISBN: 1591149665.

Since the famous loss of the Birkenhead in 1852, many designated troopships have been lost. This is a first attempt at a comprehensive record for all nations and with some account of each sinking.

MURRAY, Allan A. Sunk in Two Minutes: The Fatal Encounter between I-21, HMAS Mildura and the Iron Knight (Men and Ships at War, Book 4).vi, 68p., bibliog., illus. [n.p.], The Family Murray Trust, 2017. ISBN: 9781973117001.

        A description of the fatal encounter between Japanese submarine I-21, HMAS Mildura and ss Iron Knight off the south-east coast of Australia on 8 February 1943. Iron Knight was sunk in 2 minutes by I-21. The sinking occurred in full view of Mildura, the corvette escorting convoy, OC.68. Thirty-six merchant seamen lost their lives, many from Newcastle. Allan's great uncle, 'Dukesy' Forbes, also from Newcastle, was aboard Mildura.

Somewhat confusingly arranged. A chronological list of ships sunk or damaged and in which Sunderland seaman were killed. Confusingly it also includes the names of some men who survived the war, but who may have been discharged injured. Gives a brief account of the circumstances of the action or sinking in each case.

The sinking of s.s. Quebec City by U 156 in 1942.

Documents the controversial 1942 sinking of the liner and the rescue operations that were initiated by the same German U-Boat that fired the torpedoes. Details the moral and procedural complexities of confrontations between military and merchant forces, especially in regards to ships such as the Laconia, transporting POWs and operating under the flags of the Red Cross. The consequences of the sinking, which resulted in indictments at the Nuremburg Trials, are also analysed.

Wartime stories of South Africans overseas. The first concerns AB Tony Large who was sunk in Cornwall and rescued, only to be sunk again in the Laconia. This time he survived 39 days in an open boat.

Three weeks into her voyage, her hull mysteriously holed, Dunedin Star ran aground off Namibia's infamous Skeleton Coast. A skilful retelling of her voyage and the fate of the survivors.

A naval surgeon reviews the scant evidence on clinical problems associated with shipwreck and adds his own observations on the cases of 279 WWII survivors. Draws practical conclusions for future use. First delivered as the 1942 Bradshaw Lecture.

The first full account of the sinking in February 1944 of this troopship from convoy KR8 by the Japanese submarine I 27. 1,300 died in the attack 100 miles north-northwest of Addu Atoll.

Covers a completely neglected area. As well as women in the armed services, others served in on board merchantmen in roles as varied as hairdressers and engineers.

War memoirs of a Royal Artillery gunner. A significant chunk of the book is devoted to his sinking in Laconia and subsequent rescue.

The author was one of the two survivors of the Lulworth Hill, torpedoed in the South Atlantic on 19 March 1943. While proceeding independently from Cape Town, she was sunk by a U-boat and her 14 survivors dwindled slowly until only two were alive when rescued after 50 days by the destroyer Rapid.

An interesting reflection on how he used the Internet to track down the fate of two great uncles lost when the ship was torpedoed in the Caribbean.

Built in 1940 she was sunk in the Red Sea in 1941 and is now a favourite dive site. Her full history is covered.

Examines a dozen attacks on survivors of merchant ships sunk in the Indian Ocean as well as the naval Sutlej. Reprinted by Images of Worcester and Brick Tower of New York in 1997(ISBN: 1883283183).

A fascinating and unusual approach which looks at what happened after sinking of merchantmen.

Bell was an 11-year-old missionary's son on the torpedoed s.s. West Lashaway sunk in August 1942. His mother's story and their privations were recorded at the time. These are his recollections with some account of the intervening years and his attempts to meet crew members of U 66.

A wartime mystery. The s.s. John Barry was sunk off Oman by U 859 in 1944 while carrying huge quantities of unacknowledged silver. Soon after U 859 was sunk in the Malacca Strait and it is claimed may have been carrying uranium to Japan. An interesting tale of sinkings, salvage, suspicion, and skulduggery.

City of Cairo was sunk by U 68 while alone in the South Atlantic in November 1942. This tells the epic story of the survivors.

The City of Benares was sunk while carrying evacuees. Although the results of the attack shocked Britain, there was bungling and incompetence on the British side.

An empathetic account of the Italian emigrants who were killed when the steamer was torpedoed, while being deported to Canada. Published as a parallel text in English and Italian.

A reference guide to the wrecks with details of the wreck and the circumstances of the sinking.. An excellent guide.

A reference guide to wrecks with details of the wreck and the circumstances of the sinking. Covers Orkney and Shetland. An excellent guide.

A reference guide to over 300 wrecks with details of the wreck and the circumstances of the sinking. Republished in 2008 by Whittles as Shipwrecks of the Forth and Tay. ISBN: 978190444576.

Originally published as a one-volume work in 1986, this expanded edition gives a full account of war disaster. Populist in tone it has some excellent contemporary pictures.

Essentially an illustrated fundraising pamphlet which dwells on the courage of the lifeboat crews

The author was a young cadet on the s.s. Quebec City sunk in the South Atlantic in September 1942. An account of the sinking and the survivors' journey to Liberia and subsequent rescue.

A wreck divers' guide to the coast from the Mull of Galloway to Greenock. Organised in five geographic sections, then alphabetically by ship name. Each one has a small description of how the vessel was lost. A useful if limited guide, including a number of war casualties. A second edition was published in 1997 and a third in 2004 (ISBN: 0951336622).

A wreck divers' guide to the coast from the Mull of Kintyre to Coll. Organised in four geographic sections, then alphabetically by ship name. Each one has a small description of how the vessel was lost. A useful if limited guide, including a number of war casualties. A second edition was published in 2003.

An interesting account by a missionary of the aftermath of the sinking of the s.s. City of Cairo when survivors spent two weeks in open boats. Compare this with Usher. By at least the sixteenth (post-war) impression, a preface added some facts and names concealed or changed by wartime censorship.

Spun off from a television documentary, this account is based on interviews with the child survivors of the sinking of the Benares.

When the Dunedin Star was mined off Namibia in November 1942, she was beached and the passengers and crew got ashore. This is the story of their rescue and the chapter of accidents surrounding it. Five editions had appeared by September 1945.

An uncensored expansion of Marsh's wartime work, on the sinking of the Dunedin Star. The co-author has popularised and developed the story from new sources and his imagination.

He joined the RN early in 1939 and served on Valiant. Drafted home in 1942 he was on Laconia when she was sunk and was badly traumatised by the event.

Poon Lim was Second Steward on the s.s. Benlomond sunk in the South Atlantic on 23 November 23 1942. He was the sole survivor and suffered a record 133 days on a raft before rescue by Brazilian fishermen. This is a fictional (and fanciful) recreation of this feat of endurance.

A geographically arranged list of all the submarine wrecks – mainly German – positively identified by divers, with some account of the circumstances of the sinking.

An analysis of 448 wartime sinkings and the factors influencing death or disablement, based on survivor's reports.

The Anglo-Saxon was sunk by a German raider in the South Atlantic on 21 August 1940. The two survivors struggled over 2,000 miles to the Bahamas and safety.

A school project by Class 2F, in support of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. It explores the sinking and the fate of Lifeboat 12 through new personal information from survivors.

The City of Benares was torpedoed while carrying evacuee children. Cornish spent over a week in an open boat with some of them before being rescued.

In 1941 the s.s. Politician ran aground in the Sound of Eriskay with a cargo which included nearly a quarter of a million bottles of whisky. Later celebrated in book and film by Compton Mackenzie as 'Whisky Galore', this is the true and strange tale of what really happened.

The religious tale of a shipwrecked missionary, Ethel Bell. Her ship s.s. West Lashaway was torpedoed on 30 August 1942 and her boatload of survivors rescued on September 18 by the destroyer Vimy which first shelled them, in mistake for a submarine. See also her son's recollections.

The tale of the sinking of the Arandora Star by U 47 while en route to Canada with POWs and internees.

Her ship was sunk in the South Atlantic and her boatload of survivors eventually reached Liberia. She aims to bring home to readers the horror and suffering of the sea war. Reprinted by Chivers in 1969.

The tragic tale of the sinking of a ship full of Italian POWs and of the attempt to rescue the survivors.

The City of Shanghai was sunk on 10 May 1941, while proceeding alone in the South Atlantic. The author took command of a lifeboat, which was only found by another merchantman after 30 days.

The author survived the torpedoing of the Rooseboom on 1st March 1942, after evacuation from Sumatra. His lifeboat was 26 days adrift in the Indian Ocean and there were only four survivors. A second edition was published in 1973.

A detailed and very personal account of the sinking of LST 349 on the coast of Sicily in a storm.

Another harrowing tale of the survivors from a torpedoed ship.