'Jock' Shelley was the only veteran I talked to who had actually served on HMS Campanula at the same time as Nicholas Monsarrat. 

We join where I ask him if he knew Monsarrat had any ambition to write about the convoy war.

After hearing that Monsarrat was popular with the crew I asked Cyril Stephens, who had served on HMS Orchis, how the corvette crews got on with one another. Cyril, by the way, was the secretary of the Flower Class Corvette Association, and was instrumental in putting me together with these interviewees.

This wasn't the answer to a specific question to Jock Shelley, but I think it has that remarkable quality where a brave man reflects on the actions of other brave men.

A tanker on fire is one of the most vivid and awful events in the book. Here are two perspectives on this dreadful situation.

The first is in answer to a straight question. The second came up in a conversation about the extraordinary injustices and injuries visited on the civilian merchant seamen.

If you've read the book or seen the film you'll know how the Gibraltar run tested the crew of Compass Rose. Here's Jock Shelley's memories of that route. The losses are staggering, and the fact they could see the U-boats during the day makes it all the more terrifying. The end of the story is - bizarre.

This story, of bearding the fearsome head of training at the Tobermory anchorage, always reminds me that the crews on the corvettes were still young dynamic men, who could be up for a laugh. 

After just three months training HO's (Hostilities Only) men were in the middle of the Atlantic. Seasickness was no joke.

There's a story about a Nazi officer coming aboard Compass Rose in The Cruel Sea that could have been inspired by this incident.

Everybody's nightmare - but what actually happens? Hugh Noble, a DEMS gunner on the Fort Bellingham (pictured) in the Arctic tells us, prompted by his pal Ron Young. Listen to the end to hear which violent force it was that actually finally sunk the Bellingham, a point on which Hugh corrects lots of naval historians, including our friends on this website.

Another torpedo tale came up when I was talking to Cyril Stephens about his fears afloat. There was a glitch in the digitizing so there's a gap in the visuals and the sound de-syncs, but it's too good a story to miss.

There's a gentleness to Jock's thoughts here that would have made me want him as a shipmate. Having said that, some of this excerpt is really horrible.

You'll hear me struggle at the the beginning to understand the context in which Hugh Noble could find himself in a neutral port talking to German sailors in the middle of a war. You'll recognise some of the twists of the neutrality rules that gave rise to the strange fate of the Graf Spee in the mouth of the River Plate.

I know all you matelots know what a Dog Watch is and you'll be in two minds about this pun, but this is a great story.

I asked Ron about his very first encounter with a U-boat, and this is what he said. Interesting and violent twist at the end.

The convoys to Russia figure greatly in the book, and a lot of Jock's impressions on the Campanula chime with Monsarrat's. He may have been on the convoy on which HMS Edinburgh (HMS Belfast's sister ship) was sunk - I'll do some more work on this.