Cruel sea in real life

Press, 11 January 1986, Page 18

Cruel sea in real life

No Place to Linger. By John Holm. Holmwork/Roulston Greene, 1985. 220 pp. $34.95. (Reviewed by Ted Glasgow) Captain Holm is known to many New Zealanders both as a master mariner and later as head of the now defunct shipping company which bore the family name. During World War II he served in the Royal Navy, for most of the time as captain of a corvette whose principal task was to escort Atlantic convoys. The sub-title of this book is “Saga of a War-Time Atlantic Kiwi,” which is appropriate enough, and it soon becomes plain why the Atlantic was no place to linger, infested as it was by hostile submarines. It is a pity that the saga includes a lot of personal details and activities which are of little consequence except perhaps to relatives and friends of the author, or would it not be a true saga without these details. The corvette which Captain Holm commanded, at first with the rank of lieutenant and later lieutenantcommander, was H.M.S. Crocus. She was part of a force stationed at Freetown, on Africa’s west coast. His descriptions of life in a small warship engaged in protecting convoys and

hunting submarines make easy and interesting reading. His story of his encounter with U-333 is a classic of its kind, as is his account of the rescue of survivors from the torpedoed Empress of Canada. Captain Holm met and became friendly with Nicholas Monsarrat, author of “The Cruel Sea,” and it becomes apparent that the dangers and hardships of Monsarrat’s fictional characters were very close to the real thing. In the film version of “The Cruel Sea” it was Holm’s Crocus which became H.M.S. Compass Rose. Years after the war was over Captain Holm met Korvettenkapitan Peter Erich Cremer, commander of U--333 which the Crocus twice rammed, and which the Admiralty deemed probably destroyed. The meeting proved as interesting as it was unusual, and the two men who tried so desperately to kill one another have become friends. Captain Holm was awarded the Distinguished Service. Cross. He quotes from official reports to show that his superiors thought highly of him. Clearly he was a good sailor and an outstanding naval officer, and he has written a very readable account of this part of his life.