August 2017 | nautilusint.org | telegraph | 33
MARITIME BOOKS
Unique shipping story the world should hear Stranded in the Six-Day War By Cath Senker Self-published, £11.99 ISBN: 978 19997 08504 f www.cathsenker.co.uk may be known as the six-day war, but it was K an eight-year ordeal for the 14 merchant ships that The 1967 conflict between Israel and Egypt
were trapped in the Suez Canal from its outset. The story of these ships and those who crewed them is a remarkable one, and it is told with depth and affection by author Cath Senker. Her interest had been sparked by an exhibition about the ships staged by the artist Uriel Orlow in 2014, and her resulting highly recommended book has been timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the conflict. She has mined a rich seam of recollections from many of the seafarers who were caught up in the events after the Egyptian government refused permission for the ships to leave the Great Bitter Lake. Tales from crew members are interlaced with the wider narrative, as she traces the roots of the conflict and explains how the strategic and
economic significance of the Suez Canal resulted in the ships’ captivity. The ships were virtually in the front line of the action, and there are dramatic accounts of the war raging around them, and moving memories of how the crews went to the aid of retreating Egyptian soldiers who were starving and dying of thirst (see feature, page 30). In her well-written and nicely presented book, Senker tells how the crews managed to adjust to the constantly changing situation and restricted communications with their companies and families at home — often through shrewd and delicate negotiations with the Egyptian authorities, right down to trading cigarettes for fresh fruit and vegetables. Thanks to diplomatic efforts, the Egyptians allowed crew changes to be carried out on a regular basis, and many of the seafarers describe the mixed emotions caused by the working arrangements. Whilst some enjoyed the extra war zone pay and the excitement of the posting, others were frustrated by being stuck in the canal with an underlying sense of risk. Particularly fascinating are the accounts of how
and in just shy of 100 pages, Mr Megoran explains how his love of paddle steamers began and tells the tale of Kingswear Castle’s operational life, as well as how remarkable voluntary work, grants and donations kept the ship sailing and enabled further major restoration to be carried out. The story ends — or rather continues — with Kingswear Castle returning to its home waters of the River Dart in 2013. The move meant that a new generation is now able to enjoy the delights of sailing aboard a traditional paddle steamer.
Maritime One man and page-turner his beloved hits the spot Kentish paddle for children steamer PS Kingswear Castle By John Megoran Amberley Books, £14.99 ISBN: 978 14456 65580 f www.amberley-books.com steamer may be ebbing away K into the mists of yesteryear, but
The Pirate’s Children By Michael Lloyd Austin Macauley, £9.99 ISBN: 978 17869 36660 f www.austinmacauley.com
Lloyd has embarked on a new K venture with his latest book: a lively Nautical novelist Michael
historical yarn aimed at children and young adults. Set in the 17th century, the story begins when teenage orphan Eleanor inherits a ship and discovers that her father — a sea captain — may not be dead after all, but is missing in the Caribbean. A wealthy, educated young Englishwoman now in charge of her own destiny, she resolves to have her newly-acquired vessel made seaworthy, and sets sail across the Atlantic to find her father — with a rag-tag young crew and her siblings in tow. The theme of children setting off on an independent adventure is a winning formula familiar to anyone who has read the likes of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series. The author also cannily appeals to fans of popular historical fiction such as the Poldark saga, with the inclusion of dastardly landlords, downtrodden tenants and a dramatic showdown at an aristocratic ball. Lloyd has a good sense of what children will find entertaining, highlighting the terrible smells of old London, for example, and featuring pets such as Rascal the dog and Banana the parrot among his cast of characters. He also creates a fantastic heroine in Eleanor, a brave, spirited leader who takes on a great deal of
a growing sense of community developed between the multinational crews of the ships — four from the UK, two from Germany, two from Sweden, two from Poland, and one each from Bulgaria, France, the United States and Czechoslovakia. From coordinating food and fuel supplies, to organising medical care and social activities, the crews developed an increasingly sophisticated system of mutual support. What became known as the Great Bitter Lake Association was an inspiring attempt to organise the crews in a collective way and to establish social activities to keep seafarers entertained after their tasks were completed. There are great stories of daily life — bolstered by some excellent illustrations — which vividly explain how the potential boredom of being static in the waterway was alleviated by the work of keeping the ships and their cargoes safe and maintained. Another morale-booster was participation in football, sailing, table tennis, cricket and an inter-ship ‘Olympics’. The staging of non-denominational ‘church’ services and the creation of Great Bitter Lake stamps — now valuable collectors’ items — symbolised the intense relationships and close
community which had developed among the crews. It wasn’t all fun: as the stalemate dragged on, shipping companies progressively cut the crew numbers down, and there were also rumbles of discontent over pilfering and differences in pay rates between the different nationalities. Finally, Senker describes how the vessels were eventually freed — one with a cargo which had increased in value by 1,000% over the period in captivity. She details the eventual fate of each ship and explains how she researched her book. It is, she rightly concludes, a story that deserves a wide audience — and one that demonstrates the potential for people to ‘create cooperative communities in the most unlikely of circumstances’.
any quibble, it is that the layout and editing of the book doesn’t always do the story justice. This is something that can be put right in the promised sequel, though, and there will doubtless be many fans keen to read more about Eleanor and her crew.
Appealing introduction to ancient North Sea port responsibility but still likes to have fun. As the author — a retired shipmaster and Nautilus Council member — told the Telegraph last month, he was keen to make sure all the historical information in the book was accurate. Thanks to this, young readers will learn much about the golden age of sail and the realities of 17th-century piracy as they eagerly turn the pages to find out what happens next in the story. All in all, The Pirate’s Children really is a good effort from Michael Lloyd, and if we were to have
Edinburgh’s Leith Docks 1970-1980: The Transition Years By Malcolm Fife Amberley Books, £14.99 ISBN: 978 14456 62565 f www.amberley-books.com in the country, dating back K to the 11th century, so it’s little
It is one of the oldest harbours
wonder that Leith Docks has a rather interesting story to tell. Taking a snapshot of its more recent past, author Malcolm Fife has penned Edinburgh’s Leith Docks 1970-1980: The Transition Years, which captures the initial years of
The golden age of the paddle
some of these glorious vessels have lived on to the modern day. One such vessel is Kingswear Castle. One of a number of smaller paddle steamers built in the 19th and early 20th centuries to provide transport and excursions along some of Britain’s most beautiful rivers, it was the last to be built for service on the River Dart, in Devon, and also the last to be withdrawn, ending its first career in September 1965. Fortunately, it did not follow other paddle steamers into the scrapyard but gained a new lease of life, first on the Isle of Wight and then on the Medway in Kent. This extension allowed its former manager and captain John Megoran to create this rather sweet personal tribute to the steamer’s past glories. Using a host of colour pictures
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New coasts for U-boats U-Boats Beyond Biscay By Bernard Edwards Pen & Sword, £19.99 ISBN: 978 14738 96053 f www.pen-and-sword.co.uk for many years been writing well-crafted K accounts of the Merchant Navy’s involvement in Nautilus member Bernard Edwards has
the Second World War. In his latest volume, he turns his attention to ‘the silent hunter-killers’ — German submarines that went after Allied merchant vessels unprotected by the convoy system. As Edwards explains, the fall of France to the Nazis in summer 1940 gave German vessels direct access to the Atlantic through the Bay of Biscay ports. Fleet commander Admiral Dönitz therefore decided to extend the reach of his
U-boats, tackling the Mediterranean and the coast of Africa, where merchant vessels usually operated alone. In U-Boats of Biscay, the author tells the story of each Nazi submarine deployment in these new areas of operation, and of the merchant ships that suffered the consequences. His engaging, novelistic style of writing is underpinned by extensive research; all his sources are detailed in the bibliography and there is a comprehensive index to help students use the book as a work of reference. A few black-and-white photos are supplied on glossy pages in the centre of the book, and more would be welcome in any future edition. But the text stands up well on its own, and would be a good read for Second World War buffs looking to add a new perspective to their book collection.
the dock after a large state-of-theart sea lock was installed in 1969. The work transformed the tidal harbour into a deepwater dock, and this, together with the discovery of oil in the southern North Sea and a growing number of cruiseship calls, boosted its fortunes. In his short book, which combines archive photographs with engaging text, Fife takes a look at some of the of the vessels that docked at Leith during the pivotal decade. These are sorted under various categories — including British and foreign flagged vessels, tankers, tugs, light vessels and sludge ships — demonstrating the variety of tonnage using the port and also serving to show some of the wider transformations in the shipping industry during this time. There is an understandably strong focus on the vessels operated out of Leith to supply and service the oil rigs in the North Sea; through a number of chapters, Fife demonstrates their increasing sophistication and the complexity of some of the cargoes that had to be carried to support the offshore industry. A picture-heavy book, the information provided will give the average reader a decent starting point for understanding the history of Leith Docks. And while a more seasoned pro may see the contents as too simplistic, it provides a nice distraction and serves its purpose rather well.
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