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Maritime Studies (MarStudies)
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Adams, Harold --- "Book Review: Atlantic Odyssey" [1999] MarStudies 4; (1999) 107 Maritime Studies 28

BOOK REVIEW

Atlantic Odyssey, Michael Thwaites

Alfred Thayer Mahan, in his commentary on the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars (1783-1815) observed ‘that it was the storm battered ships of the Royal Navy upon which the Grand Army never looked that stood between it and its domination of the world.’

Almost one hundred and fifty years later it was the Royal Navy’s flotillas of small storm battered ships, many hastily commissioned, that secured the Atlantic lifeline at a time when Great Britain and her Commonwealth Allies stood in defiance of the Nazi juggernaut which had conquered and enslaved the heart of Europe.

This is the story of one of those tiny ships which, without the benefit of radar and other aids and comforts, bucketed through storms and everything that Admiral Doenitz could throw at them and survived. Importantly she never faltered in her task of convoying and protecting her precious charges.

Barely 150 feet long, HMS Wastwater was a converted whale catcher equipped with a 4-inch gun and ASDIC (nowadays called sonar). This is her story related by her ‘Jimmy’ or First Lieutenant, an Australian Rhodes Scholar who was commissioned into the Royal Navy Reserve at the outbreak of war in 1939. It is a very human story of personal tragedy, drama, courage and humour. It is no ordinary story because the author conveys, albeit in an unassuming and understated way, what it was really like. His descriptions of storm and tempest, cold and ice, heat and oppressiveness, are vivid and real. Above all the writing is as fresh as though this gallant little ship and her ship’s company had just returned to harbour. At the same time it is not without genuine humour.

As the Wastwater and her sister ship HMS Buttermere steam towards the glitter of New York just weeks after the United States entered the war in December 1941, the gunner’s mate recognises the moment with a wry comment, ‘Courage America, help is on its way!’

This little book is indeed a gem, a true sailor’s story written with the sensitivity of a poet who at the time had but recently been awarded the Newdigate Prize for Poetry at Oxford University and later the King’s Medal for Poetry.

Many who put to sea to keep the vital North Atlantic sea links open sadly did not return ‘to enjoy the blessings of the land and the fruits of their labours’. It is our good fortune that Michael Thwaites did. His story has much appeal.

The book is available from the author, Michael Thwaites, 49 Cobby Street, Campbell ACT 2612.

Harold Adams


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