Shape a course for Fastnet : attacks on merchant ships by U-boats during the Great War where the survivors landed in Kerry and West Cork /G.L. King.

"With the passage of time, Ireland's involvement in the First World War faded from the nation's consciousness. That collective amnesia regarding Ireland's role in the Great War has, however, changed in recent years with the official recognition and honouring of Irish soldiers who fought and died in the War. This new awareness in the Republic of Ireland of the country's First World War history does not, nonetheless, include what might rightly be called 'Ireland's forgotten war' - the relentless four-year battle in Irish waters against the onslaught by Germany's U-boats which, in early 1917, had brought Great Britain to her knees due to the critical shortages of imported food and materials. In Shape a Course for Fastnet: Attacks on Merchant Ships by U-boats during the Great War where the Survivors landed in Kerry and West Cork, G.L. King sheds light on aspects of this unremembered chapter of Irish maritime history. The book is in two parts: Part One includes a summary of the main sequence of events of Germany's U-boat campaigns, from the first proposals to use submarines against merchant shipping (Handelskrieg) in October 1914, up to the commencement of unrestricted U-boat warfare in February 1917. Part Two consists of summaries of Admiralty records of ships which were attacked, and mostly sunk, and where the survivors, or part of the crew, landed at various places along the Kerry and West Cork coastline. The book also pays tribute to those merchant seamen of all nations who displayed courage and heroism in the face of extreme danger as they crewed their vessels through U-boat-infested waters to keep open the trade routes upon which Britain and Ireland?s very survival depended. Accompanied by rarely seen images, Shape a Course for Fastnet presents the compelling, courageous and tragic maritime history of ships that were attacked in the South-Western Approaches during the 1914-1918 War. The meticulously researched and presented material adds immensely to our understanding of Ireland's First World War history generally and, specifically, of its fascinating maritime history during that period."--Provided by the publisher.