The Hand-me-down Ships

First edition, first printing.  x, 182pp plus two sections of black and white plate illustrations, maps in text.  Blue cloth-covered boards, lettered in gilt on spine.  8vo.  Cloth gently rounded on corners and spine ends.  Previous owner’s inscription and label on front paste down else neat, clean, bright and tight.  In its original, now tatty, dust wrapper, rubbed and chipped at edges and around spine with several short, closed tears and extensive interior tape repairs, aged but holding.

An account of the Second World War exploits of ten ex-American Coast Guard cutters and the officers and men of the Royal Navy who served on them. Although the war at sea is the subject of many books and films, some aspects are less well remembered.  Among them are the cutters offered to the UK in 1941 under the Land Lease Agreement – an offer gratefully accepted by the Royal Navy, particularly at a time when British escort vessels were being hard-pressed and there was a particular need for long-range seaworthy ships on the Atlantic convey routes.  The previous owner’s inscription on the front paste down indicates that they served on one of the cutters, HMS Totland, between July 1942 and June 1945.