Description
Object description
Colour photocopy (64pp including illustrations) of his ms diary, accompanied by a small number of pertinent photographs, kept during his service as a seaman gunner in the New Zealand Shipping Company's MV ORARI from July 1940 - May 1942 and covering her four voyages during that period, sailing either in Atlantic convoys or idependently: the first voyage (July - December 1940) across the North Atlantic and then, via the Panama Canal, across the Pacific to Australia and back, via South Africa, to Home waters, where the ORARI was badly damaged by a torpedo attack by U 43 on 13 December but was able to proveed under her own steam to the Clyde; the second voyage (March - August 1941) across the Atlantic to New York for repairs, then on to the River Plate and Montevideo in South America, back to Halifax, Nova Scotia and on to the United Kingdom; the third voyage (September 1941 - January 1942) across the Atlantic and, via the Panama Canal, the Pacific to Australia and back to the United Kingdom by almost the same route; and the fourth voyage (February - May 1942) across the Atlantic to Trinidad, on to South America again and back across the South Atlantic to West Africa and on to the United Kingdom. His diaries for all four voyages make reference to weather conditions and U-boat alarms, but the most interesting entries relate to the torpedoing of the ORARI in December 1940 and the beginning of ORARI's fourth voyage in February 1942 when her convoy came under fierce attack by U-boats and there was criticism of the impotence of their United States Navy escort and ORARI enjoyed a close escape when sailing independently after leaving the convoy and then herself made a determined but (in the event) unsuccessful attack on an Italian submarine.
Content description
Colour photocopy (64pp including illustrations) of his ms diary, accompanied by a small number of pertinent photographs, kept during his service as a seaman gunner in the New Zealand Shipping Company's MV ORARI from July 1940 - May 1942 and covering her four voyages during that period, sailing either in Atlantic convoys or idependently: the first voyage (July - December 1940) across the North Atlantic and then, via the Panama Canal, across the Pacific to Australia and back, via South Africa, to Home waters, where the ORARI was badly damaged by a torpedo attack by U 43 on 13 December but was able to proveed under her own steam to the Clyde; the second voyage (March - August 1941) across the Atlantic to New York for repairs, then on to the River Plate and Montevideo in South America, back to Halifax, Nova Scotia and on to the United Kingdom; the third voyage (September 1941 - January 1942) across the Atlantic and, via the Panama Canal, the Pacific to Australia and back to the United Kingdom by almost the same route; and the fourth voyage (February - May 1942) across the Atlantic to Trinidad, on to South America again and back across the South Atlantic to West Africa and on to the United Kingdom. His diaries for all four voyages make reference to weather conditions and U-boat alarms, but the most interesting entries relate to the torpedoing of the ORARI in December 1940 and the beginning of ORARI's fourth voyage in February 1942 when her convoy came under fierce attack by U-boats and there was criticism of the impotence of their United States Navy escort and ORARI enjoyed a close escape when sailing independently after leaving the convoy and then herself made a determined but (in the event) unsuccessful attack on an Italian submarine.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS