"Just the sort of book one likes to find on a yacht's bookshelf between watches." - Classic Boat Magazine Set sail on a voyage of discovery of great nautical stories. These stories range from the Napoleonic wars, via ships that traded under sail round Cape Horn, to what it was like to take charge of a ship in Convoy, serve in the force-ends of a submarine or fly a Corsair against the Japanese. ‘Hornblower and the Widow McCool’ by C S Forester from Hornblower and the Crisis’. (Michael Joseph) Hornblower is, of course, the best known fictional character in sea fiction. This short story is not well known, but illustrates the dilemmas which a young officer can be faced with on active service. I especially like the puzzle. ‘Peter Simple’ by Captain Marryat. (W. Nicholson & Sons,London) – date unknown. Marryat was a midshipman under the famous Captain Cochrane, the model for many Napoleonic sea story heroes. This extract is particularly interesting to me because it is the only account I know of, of an extreme manoeuvre called ‘club-hauling’ – a desperate last resort to avoid the ship being driven ashore. ‘Through the Gap’ from Down to the Sea by ‘Shalimar’ (F C Hendry). (Blackwood & Sons, 1946) Frank Hendry is without doubt my favourite sea-story writer. He had a distinguished career at sea in sailing and steam ships, and was aRangoonpilot for some years. He then joined the Indian army and was awarded the MC for commanding a paddle steamer in the Tigris during the disastrous campaign in Mesopotamia (Iraq) in the First World War. He then, in retirement, wrote many stories which were published by Blackwood's magazine in the 1940's and 1950's. ‘On Camouflage, and Ships’ Names’ from Merchantmen at Arms, by Captain D Bone, (Chatto& Windus, 1919) Captain Bone (later Sir David Bone) is well known for his book, The Brassbounder, taken from his apprenticeship in sail. He became Commodore master of the Anchor Line, and served throughout both world wars. His writing style is wonderfully archaic, and he is the only person who seems to have used the title ‘Merchant’s Service’, a far more accurate forerunner to the later term, ‘Merchant Navy’. ‘I Was There’ by Nicholas Monsarrat, from The Ship That Died of Shame and Other Stories. (Cassell, 1959) A rather moving account of theDunkirkevacuation from an imaginative point of view. ‘Without Incident’ by G. Drake, from Touching the Adventures. (G Harrap, 1953) Geoffrey Drake was my first divisional officer when I, as a young cadet in HMS Conway, was training for the merchant navy. He was an unforgettable character and a seaman to his fingertips, as well as having many other artistic talents. His story well shows the sheer strain of operating in convoy; a strain unknown to modern seafarers. ‘Quiet Holidaywith a Genius’ by Weston Martyr quoted in More Joys of Life by Uffa Fox. (Nautical Publishing Company [Harrap] 1972) This story is a wonderful description of Uffa Fox at the height of his powers, when he was designing the Airborne Lifeboat, an extraordinary craft, one of which is on display atNewport, IOW. It is told in Weston Martyr’s inimitable style. ‘Send Down a Dove’ by Charles MacHardy. (Collins, 1968) This book is a real eye-opener for anyone who has read one of the conventional books on life in a submarine.
Authors
Charles MacHardy left school to become a builder's labourer, lorry driver and trawler hand, before joining DC Thomson & Co as a trainee journalist. He joined the Royal Navy on the outbreak of war in 1939. He attended Naval Training Establishment, Shotley, then served in the Royal Navy, as petty officer, 1942-48. After the war, MacHardy was one of the legion of Scots who inhabited post-war Fleet Street, where he spent 12 years before returning to Scotland. He worked for the Daily Express, went on to become arts editor of the Daily Sketch, and was subsequently arts editor of the fledgling Independent Television News service (ITN). MacHardy included among his legion of friends the late Douglas Sutherland, and Gordon Williams, a Fleet Street contemporary whose novel, [BOOK: The Siege of Tencher's Farm] was made into the movie Straw Dogs and republished under the move title. MacHardy was a prolific writer, churning out radio plays, magazine pieces and television proposals right up until his death.
Born on Rodney Street in Liverpool, Monsarrat was educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Cambridge. He intended to practise law. The law failed to inspire him, however, and he turned instead to writing, moving to London and supporting himself as a freelance writer for newspapers while writing four novels and a play in the space of five years (1934–1939). He later commented in his autobiography that the 1931 Invergordon Naval Mutiny influenced his interest in politics and social and economic issues after college. Though a pacifist, Monsarrat served in World War II, first as a member of an ambulance brigade and then as a member of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). His lifelong love of sailing made him a capable naval officer, and he served with distinction in a series of small warships assigned to escort convoys and protect them from enemy attack. Monsarrat ended the war as commander of a frigate, and drew on his wartime experience in his postwar sea stories. During his wartime service, Monsarrat claimed to have seen the ghost ship Flying Dutchman while sailing the Pacific, near the location where the young King George V had seen her in 1881. Resigning his wartime commission in 1946, Monsarrat entered the diplomatic service. He was posted at first to Johannesburg, South Africa and then, in 1953, to Ottawa, Canada. He turned to writing full-time in 1959, settling first on Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, and later on the Mediterranean island of Gozo (Malta). Monsarrat's first three novels, published in 1934–1937 and now out of print, were realistic treatments of modern social problems informed by his leftist politics. His fourth novel and first major work, This Is The Schoolroom, took a different approach. The story of a young, idealistic, aspiring writer coming to grips with the "real world" for the first time, it is at least partly autobiographical. The Cruel Sea (1951), Monsarrat's first postwar novel, is widely regarded as his finest work, and is the only one of his novels that is still widely read. Based on his own wartime service, it followed the young naval officer Keith Lockhart through a series of postings in corvettes and frigates. It was one of the first novels to depict life aboard the vital, but unglamorous, "small ships" of World War II—ships for which the sea was as much a threat as the Germans. Monsarrat's short-story collections H.M.S. Marlborough Will Enter Harbour (1949), and The Ship That Died of Shame (1959) mined the same literary vein, and gained popularity by association with The Cruel Sea. The similar Three Corvettes (1945 and 1953) comprising H.M. Corvette (set aboard a Flower class corvette in the North Atlantic), East Coast Corvette (as First Lieutenant of HMS Guillemot) and Corvette Command (as Commanding Officer of HMS Shearwater) is actually an anthology of three true-experience stories he published during the war years and shows appropriate care for what the Censor might say. Thus Guillemot appears under the pseudonym Dipper and Shearwater under the pseudonym Winger in the book. H.M. Frigate is similar but deals with his time in command of two frigates. His use of the name Dipper could allude to his formative years when summer holidays were spent with his family at Trearddur Bay. They were members of the famous sailing club based there, and he recounted much of this part of his life in a book My brother Denys. Denys Monserrat was killed in Egypt during the middle part of the war whilst his brother was serving with the Royal Navy. Another tale recounts his bringing his ship into Trearddur Bay during the war for old times' sake. Monsarrat's more famous novels, notably The Tribe That Lost Its Head (1956) and its sequel Richer Than All His Tribe (1968), drew on his experience in the diplomatic service and make important reference to the colonial experience of Britain in Africa.
