The Coxswain (A World War 2 Naval Adventure)

by J.E. Macdonnell

Overview

As the Guadalcanal campaign got underway, the new coxswain of the Australian fleet destroyer Wind Rode found himself faced with a twin challenge—to sort out the bad apples who had come aboard as replacements for men lost in a recent action … and to somehow found his way back to the man he had been before being sunk a couple of years earlier. That time he had almost drowned in a cabin that filled frighteningly fast with seawater. Something in him had changed, he’d lost his pride in himself and the Senior Service for whom he served. And a coxswain like that is no use to anyone. So Commander Peter Bentley made up his mind to throw the ’Swain a metaphorical lifeline … even if he had to take on the entire Japanese Navy to do it!

Product Details

BN ID:	2940167671324
Publisher:	Piccadilly Books, Limited
Publication date:	05/01/2024
Series:	J.E. Macdonnell's Royal Australian Navy World War II Fiction
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	575 KB

About the Author

JAMES EDMOND MACDONNELL was born in 1917 in Mackay, Queensland and became one of Australia’s most prolific writers. As a boy, he became determined to go to sea and read every seafaring book he could find. At age 13, while his family was still asleep, he took his brother’s bike and rode eighty miles from his home town to Brisbane in an attempt to see ships and the sea. Fortunately, he was found and returned to his family. He attended the Toowoomba Grammar School from 1931 to 1932. He served in the Royal Australian Navy for fourteen years, joining at age 17, advancing through all lower deck ranks and reaching the rank of commissioned gunnery officer. He began writing books while still in active service.

Macdonnell wrote stories for The Bulletin under the pseudonym “Macnell” and from 1948 to 1956 he was a member of The Bulletin staff. His first book, Fleet Destroyer – a collection of stories about life on the small ships – was published by The Book Depot, Melbourne, in 1945. Macdonnell began writing full-time for Horwitz in 1956, writing an average of a dozen books a year.

After leaving the navy, Macdonnell lived in St. Ives, Sydney and pursued his writing career. In 1988, he retired to Buderim on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. He died peacefully in his sleep at a Buderim hospital in 2002. He is survived by his children Beth, Jane and Peter.

Macdonnell’s naval stories feature several recurring characters – Captain “Dutchy” Holland, D.S.O., Captain Peter Bentley, V.C., Captain Bruce Sainsbury, V.C., Jim Brady, and Lieutenant Commander Robert Randall.