During WWII, the San Demetrio was attacked by the German cruiser Admiral Scheer. They were part of a convoy, and the Scheer did a lot of damage. Some of the crew of the San Demetrio was killed, and the rest abandoned ship.
The next day, one of the lifeboats found a burning vessel, only to discover it was their own. They had circled back to the San Demetrio. This short book is the account of the ship, and the men who brought her back to port.
The important thing to note here is that this was published in 1942. The war wasn't over, so a lot still remained to happen. It seems the San Demetrio was actually sunk in March of 1942, but the bravery shown by the men in late 1940 was probably a huge morale boost to those who read the tale.
With something this short, it's hard to pass any type of judgement. It was basically a factual telling of the events as they happened. A member of the crew wrote a book named after the ship, and that might have been a better way to go. His name was Calum Macneil.
I didn't really have time to get bored, so that's something. I'm not going to say this is good or bad, but it was a neat story. RIP to John Boyle, the man who died on the way to land. It's nice that his estate was given some of the proceeds of the salvage. I also thought it was neat they gave Second Officer Hawkins the Red Ensign (I actually learned what that was!).
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| Red Ensign |
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