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showing 185 library results for 'navy board'

Christmas in Archangel : a memoir of life in the merchant navy 1939 - 1946 /Ivan Hall "The author went to sea at the age of sixteen in Jan.1939. He describes the everyday life, work and routine aboard the Saint Merriel, a cargo ship trading between Europe and the ports of South America. The various characters on board who taught the young apprentice the skills of seamanship are brought to life. Subsequently he learned the art of navigation and the duties of a deck officer. Then came the war. On the second day a ship was sunk twenty miles astern of them, at a position they had passed through two hours previously. The crews now had to learn to keep station in convoy and how to operate armaments and new defensive weapons (some quite absurd). They faced the dangers of mines, submarines, aircraft and surface raiders. Home on leave he met Edna who was to become his wife of fifty nine years. Sent on one of the early Arctic convoys taking munitions to the USSR, his ship became frozen in at Archangel for the duration of the Russian winter of 1941/42. Upon becoming qualified as a watch keeping officer, he sailed on a succession of 'replacement' ships, to the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, Italy and the South of France. "Canada and the USA built replacement ships for us, both to a similar design. Their names had the prefixes Fort and Ocean. There is a tendency to denigrate these ships as being quickly built, cheap and nasty. They were nothing of the kind. (Built using revolutionary methods there were bound to be a few problems). These ships saved the free world; it's as simple as that." When the European War ended he married Edna and they lived in Liverpool for a few weeks while he took the examinations for First Mate. Edna was pregnant when he joined a small tanker at Falmouth as navigating officer. Although Japan had by this time surrendered they set sail for the Far east and got as far as Colombo before being stalled and sent back to the UK."--Provided by the publisher. 2009 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92HALL, IVAN
Voyage to Gallipoli / Peter Plowman. At the commencement of World War I in 1914 Australia had only been a nation for 13 years and the RAN was only three years old (NZ had been a dominion for 7 years and had no independent navy). As young men rushed to enlist, the governments of both countries had to find ways of transporting them to a war being fought half a world away, and protecting them against German raiders en route. It was a massive undertaking. In Voyage to Gallipoli maritime historian Peter Plowman takes the story from the planning stages and the requisition of ships through to the Gallipoli landing of 25 April 1915. It covers the activities of the fledgling Royal Australian Navy and its role in the Australian capture of German protectorates (including New Guinea) in the South Pacific and the Battle of Cocos Island which saw the destruction of the German raider Emden. The book tells of the mobilization of troops and sailors, requisition and refitting of ships, one convoy false start, a number of voyages, various changes of plan and destination, and the assistance offered by ships of allied navies. Included are many newspaper accounts of various events (some by Banjo Paterson) in port and on board and quotes from diaries and memoirs of sailors and soldiers involved, giving descriptions of conditions on board - training, sport, exercise, living and eating conditions, hygiene, medical examinations and supervision, even 'crossing the line' festivities; also conditions for horses - details of convoy formations. By the time of the blooding of Anzac forces at Gallipoli, the force had been moulded very much 'on board' and 'in transit'. Two appendices give details of all the transport ships involved. 2013. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.455(496.1)