The Brown Water Navy: The River and Coastal War in Indo-China and Vietnam, 1948-1972

The minesweepers of the Royal Canadian Navy toiled in comparative obscurity, unlike their more celebrated cousins, the corvettes and frigates. In devoting a book to minesweepers, Ken Macpherson makes amends for what he considers a long ignored oversight.

It is December 26, and the author, a Merchant Navy radio officer, is sailing on the SCOTTISH HEATHER into the infamous 'black pit,' an area where German U-boats can operate freely on the surface without fear of attack from the air. What happens next is just the beginning of a chilling, first-person account of the realities of the war at sea, as experienced by a young man in his late teens. Still trying to come to terms with his father's death, his childhood experiences at the hands of the nuns, and the need to distance himself from his mother, young Gordon copes with seasickness and the constant threat of torpedoes.