ISBN 0-7509-2760-7
326 pages

Acknowledgements and Sources; Introduction; photos; Glossary; Bibliography; Index of Ships

   In 1996 Naval Institute Press published an under-appreciated and under-publicized book (it's usually a dead giveaway when NIP releases a book without a dust jacket) by Robert Browning titled U.S. Merchant Vessel War Casualties of World War II. Our very favorable review had this to say about Browning's book:

   The result is a huge, fascinating sequence of sailing and sinking, crisis and courage, death and damage. Although the prospect of perusing what is actually an extensive database might seem daunting, the information is presented so well that each briefly-described incident assumes the dramatic overtones of a short story or one-act play, and it becomes almost impossible to quit reading the accounts of ship after ship in peril on the sea.

   Exactly the same can be said about this new title from Sutton Publishing. Although it's tough to predict how well publicized and how well appreciated Alan J. Tennent's book will prove to be (at least it has a dust jacket, and a very nice one at that), it certainly shares many winning traits with Robert Browning's book. Like the Browning volume, British and Commonwealth Merchant Ship Losses assembles a huge amount of data about sinkings, data difficult or impossible to find elsewhere, and presents entry after entry in a fashion both encyclopedic and hypnotic. For each entry Tennent gives name of vessel, any previous names, gross registered tonnage, year built, date of loss, how sunk, where sunk and by which U-boat, name of U-boat skipper, route, cargo, name of skipper, number of passengers, crew, and gunners, and their fates.
   Opening Tennent's book to any random page immediately reveals a series of compact but detailed vignettes about tragedies at sea. Here's an example of four entries from a typical page:

TREVILLEY • GRT 5296 • Built 1940
12.9.42: Torpedoed and sunk by gunfire by German submarine U-68 (Merten), in the South Atlantic ENE of Ascension Island, in position 04.30S 07.50W while sailing independently on a voyage from Middlesbrough and Oban 20.8.42 to Cape Town and Beira, with 2 passengers and a cargo of 6000 tons of general and military cargo, dispersed from convoy OS 38 comprising 31 ships. On board were the Master, Capt Richard Harvey, crew of 42 and 8 gunners. 14 survivors in the torpedoed British liner LACONIA were rescued by the Vichy French cruiser GLORIA 7600/35, landed at Dakar 21.9.42 and were interned by the Vichy French authorities, 12 survivors landed near Half Assini, Gold Coast 25.9.42 and 23 survivors were rescued by Portuguese ship CUBANGO 5899/03. The Master and Chief Officer were taken prisoner, later transferred to U-459 (Wilamowitz-Mollendorf), landed at St Nazaire 4.11.42 and taken to Milag Nord. 1 crew and 1 passenger were lost.

TREKIEVE ex-WAR MALLARD • GRT 5244 • Built 1919
4.11.42: Torpedoed and sunk by Germans submarine U-178 (Ibbeken), in the Mozambique Channel E of Maputo, in position 25.55S 33.35E while sailing independently on a voyage from Bombay and Mahe, Seychelles 27.10.42, to the UK via Durban, with a cargo of 2500 tons of manganese ore, 1700 tons of nuts, 1650 tons of copra and general. The Master, Capt Edwin Aubrey Grant Jenkins, 38 crew, 6 gunners and 2 DBS landed at Inhaca Island, Portuguese East Africa. 3 crew were lost.

TREVALGAN • GRT 5299 • Built 1937
2.12.42: Torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-508 (Staats), in the Atlantic SE of Trinidad, in position 09.40N 59.15W while sailing independently on a voyage from Suez to New York via Cape Town 7.11.42 and Trinidad, in ballast. The Master, Capt Alfred Guy Williams, crew of 33 and 9 gunners were rescued by US submarine chaser PC.572 280/41 and landed at Trinidad 3.12.42.

TREWORLAS • GRT 4692 • Built 1922
28.12.42: Torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-124 (Mohr), in the Atlantic about 50 miles E of Port of Spain, Trinidad, in position 10.52N 60.45W while sailing independently on a voyage from Massowah, Eritrea, to Baltimore via Cape Town 30.11.42, with a cargo of 3000 tons of manganese ore. The Master, Capt Thomas Harold Stanbury, 32 crew and 5 gunners were lost. 7 crew and 2 gunners were rescued by US submarine chaser PC.609 280/41 and landed at Trinidad 1.1.43.

   Tennent can't—and does not intend to—tell all that can possibly be told about each of these incidents. For example, there are already entire books about the doomed Laconia with its passengers including survivors from the Trevilley. Similarly, there are already a number of excellent sources which touch on the subject of British merchant sinkings from various other perspectives. However, nowhere else does a single volume bring together so much detail about these sinkings with an emphasis on the merchant vessels, their cargo, and their crews. To show how Tennent's book complements and extends the existing data, it's an interesting exercise to compare his work with some other readily available sources covering the identical incidents. For example, here's what some other books have to say about the sinking of one of the vessels, Trekieve, included in the preceding excerpt.
   Overall, by far the best and most complete day-by-day account of the entire naval war is Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939-1945 by Rohwer and Hummelchen. However, they have no specifics about the Trekieve sinking:.

1 Nov-16 Dec   South Africa
U178 (Capt Ibbeken) sinks five ships of 26978 tons and damages one of 6348 tons....

   In Britain's Sea War: A Diary of Ship Losses, 1939-1945, John M. Young provides a few more details:

4th Near Lourenco Marques, U-178 sank the cargo ships Trekieve, 5,244 t (Hain SS Co), India to the UK, and the Hai Hing, 2,561 t (MOWT, Elder Dempster Lines, mgrs), India to Durban.

   Roger Jordan's The World's Merchant Fleets, 1939 has two entries for the Trekieve:

Hain Steamship Company Ltd, The
Trekieve   1919   Rhead3   5244   8210   412-0   52-5   25-4   11.0
launched as War Mallard

. . . .

Trekieve   4.11.42 Torpedoed by U178, sunk, 25 46S 33 48E (3† 45 surv)

   From the U-boat perspective, Jurgen Rohwer's Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two provides this line of data:

INDIAN OCEAN/SOUTH AFRICAN THEATRE: NOVEMBER 1942

04/1446

dt

U 178

Ibbeken

KP 5355

-D:

5244+

T

04/

br

-D

Trekieve

5244+

25°46S/33°48E

   Finally, in volume one of U-Boat Operations of the Second World War, Kenneth Wynn offers this information about the Trekieve in his entry for U-178:

1. 8.9.42 Left Kiel for the South Atlantic.
   U 178 moved south through the Central Atlantic and on 10.10.42 she sank the SS Duchess of Atholl (br 20119t) ENE of Ascension.
   The boat was in the area of Cape Town on the 20th and she continued on around the Cape and up to her operational area off the east coast of South Africa. U 178 took a sick seaman off U 159 on the 23rd for treatment by her doctor. On 1.11.42 U 178 torpedoed and sank the SS Mendoza (br 8233t) off Durban, on the 4th she sank two ships off Maputo, Mozambique, the SS Hai Hing (nw 2561t) and the SS Trekieve (br 5244t)....

   While it can be seen that other books already provide information about the Trekieve (and most of the other losses listed in Tennent's book), none of them provide as many details as British and Commonwealth Merchant Ship Losses to Axis Submarines, and none of them cover as many British shipping losses. Tennent's compilation of data about more than 1400 sinkings stands on its own as a very useful reference, and it also serves as an ideal complement to some of the works already available which view the same material from different perspectives.
   If there is one area where Tennent might have made a less than optimal decision in his presentation, it's in the way he has organized the entries in the book. "Entries are listed alphabetically by shipping line, with individual vessels listed in chronological order by date of loss. At the end of each section are listed merchant vessels of allied governments in exile, requisitions, or ships taken as prizes, that were commandeered and operated nominally under the command of the British government's Ministry of War Transport (MOWT), but in practice operated by private shipping companies." This organization seems far too convoluted and makes it impossible to turn quickly to any specific ship unless you already know the name of the shipping line, the date lost, and whether or not it was a MOWT vessel. If you don't know all three of those facts, it's necessary to refer to the index to find the right entry. It seems like it might have been better to simply organize the entries alphabetically by name of ship, or—although an index would still be required—in strict chronological order.
   And, while it's embarrassing to ask for more when Tennent already gives so much, the book might have been improved by covering all British merchant ship losses during the war rather than just losses to Axis submarines.
   In any event, this is a fascinating, valuable compilation of data which is definitely recommended to anyone with an interest in the war at sea. And all serious students of the naval war will absolutely want Tennent's British and Commonwealth Merchant Ship Losses to Axis Submarines on the shelf adjacent to Browning's U.S. Merchant Vessel War Casualties of World War II.
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from Sutton Publishing.
   Thanks to Sutton for providing this review copy.