A lifetime of frontline naval service and perilous campaigns across two world wars illuminate the relentless challenges and pivotal actions of a Royal Navy officer.

Vice Admiral Sir Albert ‘Patsy’ Poland (1895–1967) came from a long-standing naval family and had an action-filled career spanning two world wars. For most of the First World War Poland served in the battle cruiser New Zealand, taking part in the battles of Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank and Jutland. He earned a DSC commanding a torpedo boat in the heroic Ostend Raid. After the war Poland saw service in the Russian Civil War and then commanded gunboats in China and destroyers in the Mediterranean.

Poland’s service in the Second World War was even more eventful. He was described by historian Donald Macintyre as the most bombed officer in the Royal Navy. He commanded the sloop Black Swan in the Norwegian campaign, which was bombed, yet miraculously survived. As one of Admiral Andrew Cunningham’s trusted captains, Poland commanded the navy’s resupply effort to besieged Tobruk, and then commanded the famous 14th Destroyer Flotilla at the Second Battle of Sirte. At the end of the war, Poland took the Japanese surrender at Sabang. In tracing the course of such a career, Salt in His Veins describes in graphic detail some of the Royal Navy’s greatest deeds and gravest vicissitudes of the twentieth century.

About the Author

During a 40-year naval career, retired Vice Admiral Peter Jones AO DSC RAN commanded the frigate HMAS Melbourne and later the coalition Maritime Interception Force in the 2003 Iraq War. Since retirement he has been an Adjunct Professor in the Naval Studies Group at the University of NSW (Canberra) at the Australian Defence Force Academy. He is author of Australia’s Argonauts: The remarkable story of the first class to enter the Royal Australian Naval College (2016) and Guy Griffiths―The Life and Times of an Australian Admiral (2021).

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