Description
Object description
Ms account, written in the margins of blank pages of 9 printed booklets/calendars, and photocopy of ts transcript (193pp), compiled as a novel, but constituting a factual account (apart from the last chapter) of his service as the 2nd Officer ('P B Dale') on board the British cargo vessel NATALIAN in 1942, sailing from Liverpool to North Africa, via South Africa, describing only two major events, a 'kangaroo' court martial in Port Tewfik of a fellow officer and crew members for pilfering cargo and the ship's (fictional) sinking by a submarine, but invaluable for the wealth of detail which it gives on innumerable aspects of typical Merchant Navy life and routine including the procedures and hazards of every stage of a voyage, the views, moods and attitudes of officers and crew, personal relations on board, character sketches of a typical ship's complement, womanising, socialising and drinking on shore (especially in South Africa), sailing in convoy and coming under German air attack, and generally providing a most sympathetic and colourful portrayal of the experiences of serving afloat in wartime with the Merchant Navy. The account is accompanied by two brief accounts (10pp and 11pp) of sights and scenes of Merchant Navy life in port at Casablanca (1944) and Salerno (April 1944).
Content description
Ms account, written in the margins of blank pages of 9 printed booklets/calendars, and photocopy of ts transcript (193pp), compiled as a novel, but constituting a factual account (apart from the last chapter) of his service as the 2nd Officer ('P B Dale') on board the British cargo vessel NATALIAN in 1942, sailing from Liverpool to North Africa, via South Africa, describing only two major events, a 'kangaroo' court martial in Port Tewfik of a fellow officer and crew members for pilfering cargo and the ship's (fictional) sinking by a submarine, but invaluable for the wealth of detail which it gives on innumerable aspects of typical Merchant Navy life and routine including the procedures and hazards of every stage of a voyage, the views, moods and attitudes of officers and crew, personal relations on board, character sketches of a typical ship's complement, womanising, socialising and drinking on shore (especially in South Africa), sailing in convoy and coming under German air attack, and generally providing a most sympathetic and colourful portrayal of the experiences of serving afloat in wartime with the Merchant Navy. The account is accompanied by two brief accounts (10pp and 11pp) of sights and scenes of Merchant Navy life in port at Casablanca (1944) and Salerno (April 1944).
History note
Cataloguer PHR
History note
Catalogue date 1987-11