If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

On Boats In Wartime

by Arthur Staniforth

86 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #07-2874; ISBN 1-4251-6283-5; US$14.53, C$14.53, EUR9.92, £7.50

This book describes travel by boat during World War II in convoys in the North Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean. Also crossing the Atlantic by Queen Mary and Schooner travel in Caribbean.

About the Book

This book describes the author's experiences in crossing the North Atlantic in a convoy of 64 ships with escort in appalling weather in the spring of 1943. Many of the ships became separated from the rest in the ferocious weather which covered our boat – the Norwegian M V Tigre – in a thick sheet of ice. The convoy was reduced to 42 ships when we reached New York. What happened to the stragglers at this time when U-boats were most active? Also included is an account of travel in the West Indies as a deck passenger on sailing schooners, a visit to British Guyana, as it then was, visiting a ranch on the coastal belt and going up the Essequibo River past old Dutch fortifications. There is an account of work in the Special Police in Trinidad and at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture. The return trip form Trinidad to New York was in a convoy which had to weather a hurricane off the Bahamas. The return across the North Atlantic was very different from the earlier East to West voyage. This time it was on the Queen Mary in cabin accommodation which had been occupied by Winston Churchill when crossing to meet President Roosevelt. There were also some 12,000 American troops on board, in horribly cramped conditions. The final part of the book describes travel by convoy from Liverpool to Port Said and some descriptions of boat travel by stern-wheelers on the Nile.

About the Author

After training at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (as it then was) in Trinidad, the author worked for several years in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan as an Agricultural Officer and, latterly, as Senior Lecturer in Agriculture at the University of Khartoum. He was subsequently employed by the National Agricultural Advisory Service of the UK Ministry of Agriculture, with secondments working for the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in Africa and for UNESCO in Africa and the West Indies.

He was editor for 16 years of Agricultural Progress, the journal of the Agricultural Education Association. In recent years he has been a consultant with Reading Agricultural Consultants.