A wartime tale of an improvised ship built from amateur sailors and bold ideas, facing danger at sea.
This is a memoir from the early days of the war, when a crew of Cambridge graduates and watermen came together to run a small craft on the patrol and mine-sweeping line. The narrative follows the effort to turn a yacht into a working force, the challenges of fitting out, and the mix of humor and hardship on and off the water. It blends personal anecdotes with the wider pace of wartime patrols, trials, and close calls, offering a grounded view of naval work carried out by volunteers who learned on the job.
- Meet a crew drawn from rowing, sailing, and coastal trades, all volunteering for a dangerous but purposeful mission.
- Learn how logistics, training, and quick decisions shape life on a small ship at sea.
- Experience moments of tension and lightness alike: fog, drills, near misses, and the occasional comic misstep.
- See how reports, signals, and real-time handwork kept a fragile line of communication open in a busy war zone.
Ideal for readers of wartime maritime memoirs and naval history, especially those curious about small-ship operations and the human side of early mine-sweeping efforts.