Warships of the Bay of Quinte

'

978-1-55488-929-7

April 2011

197pp, Paperback

$28.00 CAD

This is the story of six of Canada’s Warships HMCS Napanee, Belleville, Hallowell, Trentonian, Quinte (I), and Quinte (II). These histories give a unique account of the small ships that were the backbone of the Canadian Navy during the Second World War and the Cold War. The stories record the accomplishments of these hardworking ships as well as the mistakes. This rich and vivid account of an important part of Canada’s Naval Service draws from the records of the ships, interviews with their crews, letters, diaries, newspaper articles, community libraries and photographs. You will learn about HMCS Napanee as she fights a five day battle against twenty-four German submarines in on one of Canada’s most tragic convoy battles. Be with HMCS Belleville as she fights to rescue a torpedoed merchant ship and find out about how a German submarine sinks the HMCS Trentonian late in the war killing six of her crew.

This book is the first work of history by the author and unfortunately it shows.

A short list of errata is as follows:

·         Winston Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty when term “corvette” coined; not Prime Minister

·         Incorrect usage of HMCS as “the HMCS” on numerous occasions

·         Rank of Captain (N) was not used in the Second World War

·         On page 66 a location “west” of Boston was used for an incident at sea

·         Bermuda is in the Atlantic Ocean NOT the Caribbean Sea

·         CANCOMINRONONE should have been capitalized

The most glaring error was the author missing the historical significance of the ground of HMS Indomitable in 1941. This event started a chain of events which had catastrophic consequences for the Royal Navy in that Indomitable was to be the air cover for HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse in the Far East.

There are a few good illustrations in the book however not enough to recommend it.