Kirjahaku

During the Second World War, when Britain’s very survival depended on her Merchant Navy, ships were being sunk faster than they could be replaced. The mass production of the Liberty Ship, on the assembly-line method in the USA, solved the problem: Britain received 200 of them under the Lend-Lease agreement. From 1943 until 1951, Ian Malcolm was a radio officer/purser with Alfred Holt & Co., owners of the Blue Funnel Line and the Glen Line. His voyages on the Liberty Ships Samite and Samforth, described in this book, were made during wartime, after which he spent a year on the Samnesse, trading mainly between Italy and East Africa. Subsequent voyages were made to the Continent, Far East, Australia and Indonesia. Dealing mainly with life on board his ships and how he spent the sometimes prolonged spells in port, Ian begins his story with his entrance into the Merchant Navy as a radio officer and continues with his crossing to Canada on the Queen Elizabeth to join the Samite in Baltimore. During the Samite’s fifteen month voyage, she called at various ports in the USA and North Africa while Ian’s next ship, the Samforth, on her ten-month voyage, visited Canada, the USA, Egypt, Arabia, India, Mozambique, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Norway and Finland. Life Aboard a Wartime Liberty Ship is an engaging memoir of a young man’s maritime adventures, the people he met, the countries he saw, and the intoxicating thrill of life at sea.

Dangerous Seas Is a collection of four books and includes: (1) Dangerous Voyaging shows what it was like to be at sea during the Second World War: particularly in the early years when the u-boats had the upper hand and naval escorts were in such short supply that the merchant ships had little or no protection. And, if this weren't bad enough, a seaman's wages stopped when his ship was sunk; on the grounds that he had ceased working for his employer. (2) Dangerous Voyaging 2 is the sequel to Dangerous Voyaging. (3) Fortunes of War describes what happened to the numerous ships listed in Volume XIV of The Marine Observer of 1937, and also tells the stories of three wartime voyages made by a Blue Funnel midshipman. (4) Mined Coasts - Although up to a million mines were laid during WWII, and were a constant menace to vessels sailing in coastal waters, the general public has never been aware of the massive toll they took on both ships and lives. A Fishing Vessel section is included. Over a ten year period Ian M. Malcolm's articles appeared in the Nautical Magazine of Glasgow. Since the magazine ended publication Ian continued to hone his research skills and has been prolific in his output, feeling the urgency, in his 80s and 90s, to inform the world of the great loss of life and suffering of non-military seamen during WWII. Ian is meticulous in his fact checking and his work is of the highest standard. Dangerous Seas is now available in the British Library Catalogue.

This book, which describes the losses of 38 shipping companies, is supplementary to Book I, published by The History Press in 2013. The object of both books is to publicise the slaughter of the merchant seamen which has scarcely been recognised by officialdom so that it is virtually unknown to the general public. Because the Merchant Navy carried the troops, the ammunition, the oil, the food, and everything else to pursue the War, it was the main target of the enemy. As the seamen were well aware of this, they lived under a constant strain. Being killed, however, is one thing, but being trapped in an engine room or drifting in a lifeboat which is never found is considerably worse.