In January 1939 the author joined the Merchant Navy as a sixteen year old apprentice seaman. These are his memories.
The last few months of peacetime are spent learning the ropes on a freighter plying from Europe to the ports of South America. With the outbreak of World War 2 the crew learn to keep convoy station and to defend themselves with a motley collection of ordnance.
Sent on one of the early Arctic convoys carrying war materials, his ship becomes frozen in at Archangel for the duration of the Russian Winter.
In 1943 his ship is torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean.
The dangers of the War at Sea and its moments of comradeship are vividly described.
Author: Ivan Hall
Publisher: Trafford Publishing, 2009
230 pages